Half Of Ugs 2000 Unit Holders Opt For Rights

Even as 50 per cent of the unitholders (4 lakh) have resp-onded to the 1:1 rights offer of Unit Growth Scheme 2000, the Unit Trust of India (UTI) has, through an official statement, extended the UGS 2000 rights offer till May 29, 1997.

The trust had announced a 1:1 rights offer at par under UGS 2000 which was scheduled to close yesterday (May 14). The reported collection of the scheme is more than Rs 100 crore at present and the total collection as on April 14 is estimated to be around Rs 150 crore, a UTI official said.

The rights offer opened for subscription on April 5. The UTI official said more than 50 per cent of the unitholders have responded to the rights offer and there have been enquiries on whether unitholders can go for fresh subscription.

The UGS 2000 unit holders can opt to subscribe for fresh units other than rights allotments, and in case of oversubscription (if the scheme collects more than Rs 300 crore), UTI will decide on the mode of allotment.

"There has been a favourable response for the rights offer. However, since April witnessed a large number of public holidays and also the nationwide truckers strike, application forms could not be sent to all the 8 lakh unitholders in time," the official said.

This is the second time that the the scheme had gone for a rights float. UGS 2000 had announced its bonus in July 1994 at the ratio of 1:4, and this was followed by its maiden rights offer at 1:1 in October 1994.

The UGS 2000 scheme, launched in October 1990, is close-ended in nature and has invested almost its entire assets of around Rs 300 crore in equities. The initial corpus of the scheme was Rs 150 crore. The current net asset value of the scheme is around Rs 14.