Manek Fund Set For Launch Today

Manek Growth Fund, the unit trust promoted by Manek Investment Management Ltd, UK will be launched today. The fund which is an open ended one is the brainchild of Jayesh Manek.

Manek was asked by John Templeton to manage 5 million pounds of his personal funds in 1995. Next year Templeton added another 5 million pounds to the initial corpus. This portfolio now worth 13 million pounds will form the core corpus of the unit trust, together with the proceeds from the initial three weeks. ``We will eventually look at further funds depending on the response to this first fund, though our initial focus will be the growth fund,'' Manek told Business Standard.

``Initially we will be targeting the UK market, and plan to invest 50 per cent of the fund in Britain, with the remaining 50 per cent in other markets,'' he added. Manek had launched the close ended 3 year Invil fund last year, which is to be an open ended fund at the end of the three years in 1999.

``The new structure of Invil might be based out of Mauritius,'' he added.

Manek who came to UK in 1971 from Uganda intends to stick to the strategies that have served him well in the past. ``The idea is to keep it a fairly focused portfolio because if you have 100 stocks your 100th choice is never going to be as good as your first choice,'' he says. Up to 25 per cent of the Manek growth fund will be held in blue chip stocks for liquidity though he will continue to invest in some small and medium sized companies.