Siddhartha Bank issues Equity Oriented Scheme (SEOS) worth Rs 80 crore

ShareSansar, June 20:

Siddhartha Bank Limited has floated five-year closed end Siddhartha Equity Oriented Scheme (SEOS) at a value of Rs 10 per unit from today.

Out of the total 8 crore units of the scheme worth Rs 80 crore, 1.20 crore units have been set aside for the issuer itself.

Interested investors must buy at least 100 units and at the most 80 lakh unit before the issue closes on June 29, or by July 9 at the latest.

Siddhartha Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Dhurba Timilsina further informed that SEOS will target 70 percent equity market, 25 percent bond market and only 5 percent liquidity management.

Asked why did they opt for an equity oriented scheme this time unlike their first scheme, Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme-I or SIGS-I, he said that equity -oriented scheme was brought initially since the capital market is no longer undervalued and equity market is also growing.

SEOS, the second mutual scheme by the Siddhartha Bank, has received [ICRANP] AMC Quality 3 (AMCs) rating, which is very good while the issue manager itself has received ICRANP BBB, which is not bad at all.

The issue will close on June 29 or by July 9 at the latest.

Meanwhile, NMB Bank has also finally got the much-awaited credit rating from ICRA Nepal, the only credit rating agency in the country, for its five-year, close-end, equity-base growth fund of Rs 60 crore.

Much like the new mutual fund of Siddhartha, NMB Sulav Investment Fund, too, has received the same credit rating.
 
“We have already applied with the SEBON for the final approval, and are planning to float the scheme by the last week of Shrawan,” said highly placed officials with NMB Capital Limited.

NIBL Capital is also seeking final approval from the regulator to float a closed-end seven year scheme at the earliest.

It has already received Fund Management Quality Rating of AMC Quality 3 from ICRA Nepal for its Sambriddhi Fund-I close end, equity oriented fund of the size of Rs 80 crores, and is now only awaiting the final approval from SEBON, which it expects to receive “very soon”.

Needless to say that the new mutual funds are expected to make very good returns considering some of the huge IPOs in the offing, especially the primary shares of Upper Tamakoshi hydropower project.

Chairman of Nepal Investors’ Forum Raj Kumar Tilimisina says that as mutual funds are introduced to help even those people who do not understand the stock market properly or who cannot analyze the market efficiently to benefit from the share trading, such schemes are not just beneficial for investors, but for the entire market, as they give more depth to the market.

“And I can see that the investors are gradually getting attracted to mutual funds as the price of both the mutual funds in the market has increased around 30 percent since they were launched,” he noted.

He further opines, “I think the mutual funds can expand their area of investment, rather than heavily relying on the stock market, they can fare much better.”

So far a mutual fund each launched by the merchant bankers of Nabil and Siddhartha Banks are the only two such schemes in the market.

With the upcoming budget expected to announce some measures to further promote the mutual funds, the market has also been abuzz about a five-year mutual fund to be launched by NMB Capital Limited called NMB Sulabh Investment Fund worth Rs 60 crore.

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.

Laxmi Capital is vying to launch Laxmi Value Fund, which is again a five-year closed-end balanced fund worth Rs 40 crore. Global IME is also planning a scheme identical to Nabil Balanced Fund-1.

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, were 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.