RURAL Electrification Corporation, the state-run lender for utilities, plans to raise 50 crore from sale of bonds that carry tax-benefits under the program to promote infrastructure building. The company follows many such as Infrastructure Development Finance Co and IFCI that have been raising funds using the tax benefit status. REC bonds are rated triple A. REC, which began the private placement from Thursday, is offering an interest rate of 8% per annum where bonds have a buyback option after five years. And 8.1% a year without the buyback option that will be redeemed after 10 years.
Being a part of the Tata group, the fund has the backing of a very trusted brand name with strong retail connect. While the current CEO has done an excellent job in leveraging the Tata brand name to AMC's advantage, it is ironic that this was just not capitalised on at the start. Incorporated in 1995, Tata Mutual Fund remained an 'also-ran' fund house for around eight years. Till March 2003, it had a little over Rs 1,000 crore in assets and 19 AMCs were ahead of it. But soon after that the equation changed. It was the fastest growing fund house in 2004 and 2005. During these two years, it aggressively launched six equity funds, two debt funds and one MIP. The fund house as of now stands at No. 8 in terms of asset size. This fund house has a lot to offer by way of choice. And, it also has a number of well performing schemes. Tata Pure Equity, Tata Equity PE and Tata Infrastructure are all good funds. It also has quite a few good debt funds. The funds of Tata AMC are known to...
