Investing the windfall

STRATEGY

In the next one month, with the maturing of Unit Trust of India's US-64 bonds, investors will get an untimely windfall. However, though they will get extra funds, there will be an additional headache of where to invest this money because the stock markets have been quite volatile for sometime.

But before we get into the investment decisions, let's look at the historical past of US-64. Launched in 1964, this product was an open ended balanced fund. However, in spite of having an equity component in the scheme, US-64 used to offer assured returns.

This resulted in deep trouble for the scheme in the late nineties and a loss of job for the serving UTI chairman. The government wound up the scheme and compensated the investors by issuing government bonds.

As a result, the product changed its nature from being a balanced fund to a risk-free debt investment. The income received here is going to be tax-free in nature and this move, overall has boosted the rate of return, as far as the investors were concerned.

For instance, a person in the highest income bracket of 30 per cent plus surcharges will actually end up earning returns of 12.5 per cent post-tax.

Now, investors will have to look for instruments that would at least match these returns.

MATCHING RETURNS
Investors who are looking to earn this kind of high return and that too, without taking any risk are going to find it tough. The current debt instruments returns are within the range of 8 per cent - 9.5 per cent.

A risk-averse investor will have to settle for this, if they decide to go for a conventional investment like fixed deposits, bonds and other debt instruments.

Also, since the returns are tax-free, most instruments will find it hard to beat this situation. Of course, there are deep discount bonds that could fetch returns to the tune of 12 per cent, but the earnings are not paid out to the investor each year and the accumulated sum will be given only on maturity. For instance, Bhavishya Nirman Bonds, issued by NABARD, currently give returns of 12.15 per cent. RISK
Investment in all other instruments for returns matching US-64 bonds would entail some amount of risk. This would imply moving money to areas like balanced schemes of mutual funds or, even equity diversified schemes.

The presence of equity in the portfolio will help them to garner better returns, but the element of risk will also be there.

In other words, this implies that there are two routes available for the investor when these bonds mature. The first is to try and maintain the nature of the investment, that is, debt-oriented with long-term and safe returns.

In order to achieve this, the investor will have to lock their funds for a long period of time. The other obvious route is equity that will entail some risk but can give decent returns.

In both these forms of investment, the key clause is going to be "time spent in the investment route" because a debt fund will automatically lock your funds, whereas in equity you will need to spend some time to garner the kind of returns that you are looking for.

The writer is a certified financial planner