Sbi Mutual Logs Rs 597 Crore Revenue Deficit

Another public sector mutual fund seems to be heading the Unit Trust of India way. For the year ended March 2001, the SBI Mutual Fund has logged a revenue deficit of Rs 597 crore, aggregated over 22 schemes, as the market value of investments in equity shares declined by Rs 1968.30 crore to Rs 782.56 crore.

As a result, the reserves and surplus of these 22 schemes has declined by Rs 1,635.97 crore to a wafer-thin Rs 249.34 crore.

Though no individual scheme has reported negative reserves, as many as eight schemes have reported negligible reserves.

The value depreciation in its infotech fund over the year was Rs 119.22 crore. But by far the worst hit was the Magnum Multiplier Plus 93 (MMPS 93) fund, where the depreciation on account of fall in market value of investments aggregated Rs 191.57 crore.

For the Magnum Balanced fund (MBAL), the diminution was Rs 86.48 crore and for Magnum Equity Fund (MEF), the depreciation in market value was Rs 75.73 crore.

Data available with the BS Research Bureau shows that SBIMF's 22 schemes reported revenues of Rs 430.92 crore against the expenditure of Rs 1027.98 crore in 2000-01.

In the previous year, however, the fund was cruising merrily on account of the information, communication and entertainment (ICE) sector boom with revenues of Rs 1,967.73 crore and expenditure of Rs 147.90 crore.

Ironically, ICE sector investments turned out to be the fund's undoing this year. The Magnum IT sector fund logged a revenue deficit of Rs 176.74 crore as ICE investments depreciated by Rs 119.23 crore.

As a result, the market value of investments in equity shares declined from Rs 242.99 crore in the previous year to Rs 58.28 crore. The net asset value of (NAV) of the IT fund declined from Rs 26.80 in the previous year to Rs 6.99 at the end of March 2001.

Magnum Multiplier Plus 93 recorded a revenue deficit of Rs 141.01 crore, followed by Magnum Balanced Fund (revenue deficit of Rs 97.45 crore), Magnum Equity Fund (Rs 95.82 crore), Magnum Growth Fund (Rs 57.06 crore) and Magnum Tax Gain (Rs 31.69 crore).