Ugs 2000 Rights Collections Put At Rs 250 Cr

The Unit Growth Scheme (UGS) 2000 rights collections is estimated to be in the region of Rs 230-250 crore. The scheme marked UTI's re-entry in the pure equity scheme sector for which the investor reaction is more than favourable. The Unit Trust of India (UTI) had announced a 1:1 rights offer at par under UGS 2000 scheme. The scheme had assets around Rs 290 crore before announcing its rights.

The rights offer opened for subscription on April 5 and was earlier scheduled to close on May 14. But the offer was extended till May 29. The reported collection of the scheme at this stage is more than Rs 200 crore and the total collection at close was estimated to be in the region of Rs 230-250 crore, disclosed a senior UTI official.

 

UTI officials said more than 80 per cent unitholders have responded to the rights offer and there have been enquiries on whether unitholders can also go in for fresh subscription.

"There has been a favourable response from unitholders for the rights offer. After the recent success of the income schemes, the good response to an equity scheme shows that equity cult is on its way back in the capital market," the official said.

This was the second time that UGS 2000 had gone for a rights issue. The scheme had first announced its bonus issue in July 1994 at the ratio of 1:4, which was followed by its maiden rights offer at 1:1 in Oct 1994.

The UGS 2000 scheme, launched in October 1990, is close-ended in nature and has invested almost all its entire asset of around Rs 290 crore in equities. The initial corpus of the scheme was Rs 150 crore. The current NAV of the scheme is around Rs 14.

UTI's last foray in the equity sector was in the form of Monthly Equity Plan 1997 which collected around Rs 75 crore. Though the collections of the scheme were dismal by UTI standards, it had still managed to outperform the other schemes in the tax-savings sector.