Standard Chartered MF launches PF plan

Mumbai: Standard Chartered Mutual Fund on Monday launched its IPO for its PF plan targeted at Provident Funds, under its Grindlays Government Securities Fund. The public issue for the PF plan will be open from 24^th February to 17^th March. Application forms have been made available with all leading banks and financial advisory houses.

"Ever since a Government order allowed upto 70% of incremental accretions of PFs to be invested in special Mutual Funds that invest in 100% Government securities, we were waiting for a suitable opportunity to launch this fund. We expect this March to provide us with the opportunity of purchasing Government securities at slightly higher yields" Said Naval Bir Kumar, MD, Standard Chartered Mutual Fund.

The PF plan carries a feature called "Defined Maturity Date" that has been specially designed to make transacting with mutual funds easier. This feature will allow PF fund managers to predefine a date for automatic redemption of their units and thus allow better planning of their cash flows. With this feature, PFs also get the advantage of investing in an open ended fund along with the benefit of getting a predefined maturity date of their choice.

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund is the only Indian mutual fund house that is focused on debt markets and is known for its innovative Debt mutual fund products. It is credited with being the first to introduce a short term fund, a dynamic bond fund and a medium term fund in the Indian mutual fund industry. It currently manages assets of more than Rs. 8000 Crore, and has offices in 16 cities across India.