Baroda Pioneer Mutual Fund has announced the launch of its Baroda Pioneer Infrastructure Fund. It is an open-ended equity fund.
The fund will allocate up to 100 per cent of its assets in companies which are engaged in the infrastructure sector or related sectors. It could also invest up to 35 per cent in debt.
This is the first fund from the Baroda Pioneer MF family which will invest in companies related to infrastructure. Infrastructure companies include cement and cement products, construction, energy, industrial capital goods, industrial manufacturing, metals and a few others sectors.
The other equity funds offered by the MF -- Baroda Pioneer Growth Fund and Baroda Pioneer ELSS'96 invest in equities but do not pursue a particular theme and are free to invest in any company without restrictions regarding sector, industry or market capitalisation.
There are 16 other such open-ended funds in the MF industry that invest in the infrastructure theme. The last such fund to be launched was Bharti AXA Focussed Infrastructure in February 2010. The latter too came after nearly a gap of more than seven months after Reliance Infrastructure was launched way back in June 2009.
Baroda Pioneer Infrastructure Fund will be managed by Dipak Acharya who comes with 20 years of experience. He has done M.Com, AICWA and CAIIB and has earlier worked as senior manager of Bank of Baroda.
The fund has been benchmarked against CNX 100 and is available in both growth and dividend options. The minimum application amount will be Rs 5,000 (first time) and Rs 1,000 (additional).
One per cent exit load will be applicable if you redeem within 365 days while no exit load will be applicable if you redeem after that. The New Fund Offer (NFO) opens on May 3 and closes on May 31, 2010.