Uti Recast Panel Confers, Weighs Privatisation

The corporate repositioning committee of mutual fund behemoth Unit Trust of India (UTI), headed by Y H Malegam, had its last meeting at the UTI headquarters today.

The finance ministry is expected to kick off the restructuring of the UTI shortly after the final report of the committee is submitted.

This is the second meeting of the committee over the last one week to wrap up the report. "I believe the committee has broadly agreed on the issues and there will not be any more meetings. But the consultative process will continue till the report is finalised which may take a little time," UTI chairman M Damodaran said.

According to sources, the committee is closely looking into the privatisation issue. "It is in the process of recommending recast of the UTI in tune with the changing times. It may recommend splitting the flagship Unit 64 schemes into two or three schemes," said a source under condition of anonymity.

This will also pave the path for amending the UTI Act to bring it completely under the ambit of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The board of trustees of UTI on June 30 last year approved the formation of the "corporate positioning committee" to draw up a corporate plan for the fund.

The seven-member committee, headed by Malegam, was constituted to revisit Deepak Parekh panel report on UTI and recommend an appropriate repositioning plan to the board.

The other members of the committee include Arvind Virmani, economic advisor, ministry of finance; R P Chitale, managing partner of M. P. Chitale & Co and a trustee of UTI; N S Sekhsaria, managing director, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and also a trustee of UTI; J Bhagwati, joint secretary, ministry of finance, and Cyril Shroff, solicitor and partner of Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co.

The committee, which was to submit its report to the board in six months, was given specific terms of reference:

-- Reviewing the competitive and commercial positioning of UTI in the light of the second generation reforms in the financial sector and emerging developments in the area of mutual fund business and globalisation of the Indian financial services sector;

-- Studying regulatory aspects the obligations of UTI under the UTI Act, including the implications of any change in the above context;

-- Studying the trend towards broader financial service companies;

-- Assessing confidence of investors in financial organisations of differing sizes and strengths; and -- Evaluating the progress of implementation of the recommendations of the Deepak Parekh Committee.