NIBL’s mutual fund gets Sebon's final nod, to be launched within this month 

ShareSansar, November 19:

Here’s another good news for the market. The Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) has given the final approval to NIBL Capital (Merchant bank of Nepal Investment Bank Limited) to launch its first ever mutual fund scheme called Sambriddhi Fund-I.

“Yes, the Sebon board has just given the final nod to our mutual fund, we are gearing up to launch it within this month of Mangsir ,” one of the Officer of NIBL Capital told ShareSansar.

Sambriddhi Fund-1 is a closed-ended, seven-year equity oriented fund of the size Rs 80 crore and can be extended to Rs 1 arba if there is oversubscription.

It had received Fund Management Quality Rating of AMC Quality 3 from ICRA Nepal back in June, and had been only waiting for the final approval from the Sebon.

So far there are 4 mutual funds already in the market – two managed by Siddhartha Bank group, one by Nabil Bank group and one by NMB Bank group which is still to be listed on NEPSE for trading

Laxmi Capital is also vying to launch Laxmi Value Fund, which is a five-year closed-end balanced fund worth Rs 40 crore. Laxmi Capital Market Limited recently got ICRA credit rating for its mutual fund scheme Laxmi value fund.

Global IME is also planning a scheme identical to Nabil Balanced Fund-1.

It may be noted that the merchant banking arms of Laxmi Bank and Global IME Bank and NIBL had also sought SEBON’s approval for their schemes way back in early 2013.

In fact many more mutual funds were expected in the market after the government decided to treat mutual funds as a non-taxable entity.

And the key stakeholders in the capital market, especially the share market, are upbeat about mutual funds as they give much-needed depth and maturity to the market. Such schemes are one of the safest investment tools for a novice investor, and almost as good as a pension plan for all.