Standard Life pays record price for HDFC mutual fund
Mumbai; In what is a record-setting deal for any mutual fund, Standard Life of the UK has paid Rs 50 crore to Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) as an advance towards exercise of its option to buy up to 26 per cent stake in HDFC Asset Management Company. The company is yet to receive a single rupee in terms of assets under management. HDFC currently holds 100 per cent of the Rs 20 crore paid-up equity capital of the AMC.

The option given to Standard Life Investments, the investment arm of Standard Life Assurance Company, is exercisable within one year of the mutual fund launching its operations. The valuation of the stake will be decided at the time of exercise of the option and FIPB approval too will be sought then.

HDFC, which has received all approvals to set up a mutual fund venture, is all set to float its three maiden schemes by the end of this month.

HDFC is planning to utilise its 46,000-strong fixed deposit agent network, its 72 branch offices and the 119-strong branch network of HDFC Bank to market the mutual funds schemes. The company has already held 37 workshops nationally between March and May this year for its top performing fixed deposit agents to educate them about the concept of mutual funds.

HDFC AMC plans to launch three schemes: an income fund, a balanced fund and an equity fund in the last week of July, and is aiming to mop up Rs 400 crore through these schemes.
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Disinvestment ministry moots strategic sale of 32.61 per cent stake in HOC
New Delhi: According to a report in the Business Standard, the department of disinvestment has proposed the sale of 32.61 per cent Government stake in Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. (HOC) to a strategic partner along with the transfer of management control. The proposal calls for the government to retain a 26 per cent holding in the company, following the sale. The government, currently, holds 58.61 per cent equity in the company after it recently divested 20 per cent stake in favour of mutual funds and the UTI.

The proposal is soon to be considered by the core group of secretaries on disinvestment, after which it will be referred to the cabinet committee on disinvestment for ratification. The cabinet committee had, in its last meeting, accorded an "in principle" approval for the sale of government equity in HOC and had asked the department to come up with a specific proposal.

The disinvestment commission had classified HOC as a non-core company and said that the strategic sale would enable it to acquire new technologies and funds necessary for expansion.

HOC was set up in 1960 to manufacture chemicals for dyes and dye intermediates, drugs and pharmaceuticals, rubber, chemicals, laminates and solvent industries. The company has two units, one at Rasayani in Maharashtra and the other at Kochi, Kerala. HOC also has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd., at Hyderabad.
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