$500m target for DSP energy fund

DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers Ltd is looking to mop up $500 million through its new fund, DSP Merrill Lynch Natural Resources and New Energy Fund.

Currently the company manages assets worth around $7 billion. The NFO, an open ended equity scheme would invest in companies from the natural resources, energy and new energy sectors.

"65 percent of the corpus would be invested in the Indian companies from the natural resources and the energy sector, while the rest would be invested in foreign companies through the Merrill Lynch International Investment funds which include New Energy Fund and World Energy Fund," said Anup Maheshwari, executive vice president and head of equities, DSP Merrill Lynch.

The new fund offer will close on March 27. Speaking with the media, Maheswari said that this would be the last of the equity funds for the quarter, although there might be some more debt fund offerings.

Commenting on the recent market turmoil he said that it was uncalled for and the company has lost 15 percent of the asset on the account of that.