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US-64 bad assets at Rs 11.16 billion: UTI

India's largest fund manager said it has made a provision of Rs 11.16 billion towards doubtful investments for its flagship scheme, which is 8.05 per cent of the market value of the scheme's assets.

Unit Trust of India, which manages half the Indian mutual fund industry's assets, also disclosed US-64's entire portfolio for the first time since the scheme's inception 37 years ago.

At the end of 2001, US-64's equity investments comprised 62.8 per cent of total assets, the Mumbai-based fund manager said in a statement.

Of this, UTI has earmarked Rs 2.89 billion, or 2.09 per cent of total assets, as illiquid equity shares.

The scheme had an exposure of 26.03 per cent to the 11.24 per cent 2004 government of India bond.

Its single largest equity investment was in Reliance Industries, the country's largest petrochemicals maker, at 13.76 per cent, followed by ITC Ltd, the largest cigarette maker, at 5.94 per cent.

Another Reliance group company, Reliance Petroleum, the country's largest private refiner, was third at 4.94 per cent.

Late last year, UTI said it would restructure its flagship scheme by increasing the weightage of debt instruments to 75 per cent by June 30, 2003.

Earlier last year, UTI rattled financial markets when it froze redemptions from US-64 for the remainder of 2001 as a result of heavy withdrawals in the April-June quarter.

But a national uproar forced UTI to backtrack and allow partial redemptions at a predetermined price.

Late last year, UTI released the net asset value of the scheme, or the market value of each unit, for the first time since its inception.

At Rs 5.81, the net asset value fell short of market expectations.

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