UTI MF may be biggest beneficiary of pension fund
Mumbai: UTI Mutual Fund is expected to manage a large part of the government employees' pension fund under the new pension scheme getting finalised.

Besides UTI Mutual Fund, SBI and LIC Mutual Funds could be managing the corpus, estimated to be around Rs400 crore.

The government has indicated a new investment scheme for pension funds collected from Central and State Government employees recruited from January 1, 2004 and all States, except Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, have agreed to the new pension scheme.

An interim scheme for the management of the fund is expected to be announced shortly.

UTI Mutual Fund is the largest fund house in the country in terms of the number of investors though it lost the number one position in terms of assets under management (Rs37,535 crore) to Reliance Mutual Fund recently (Rs39,019 crore) as on January 31.

The Finance Minister had indicated that the new pension fund would be managed by public sector fund mangers.

The fund collected from the employees recruited since 2004 is being kept in a government account earning a fixed interest. The argument in favour of the scheme is that it could earn a higher return for the employees' fund.
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SEBI Act may be overhauled
Mumbai: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has indicated that comprehensive amendments might be made to the SEBI Act, at launching an Investor Protection Fund (IPF) and that the government will launch a package to enhance financial literacy skills soon.

He said the government would advance the level of investor protection and impart financial literary skills at an early stage. We will come up with a financial literacy package, free of cost for schools and colleges," Chidambaram said.

He was addressing the annual convention of National Stock Exchange members today.
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HCC looks at raising Rs5,000 crore for real estate business
Mumbai: Construction major Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) is planning to raise Rs5,000 crore for investing in its real estate arm, HCC Real Estate Ltd, through a combination of private equity participation, FCCB issue and a possible IPO.

The company is also considering setting up its own real estate fund for India.

HCC, which has been traditionally into mega power projects and tunnels, has recently started giving more thrust to its real estate, roads and infrastructure projects.

Over the years, the company's margins have been declining due to the dwindling share of power in its order book, and rising cost of raw materials.
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