Sundaram MF floats Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 2-3 years; Jubilant Energy plans $85-mn share sale; Keep ESI, EPF schemes out of service tax; Punjab & Sind Bank to launch IPO in first half of December

Sundaram MF floats Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 2-3 years

Sundaram Mutual Fund has launched Sundaram Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 2-3 years, a close-ended growth fund.

The objective of this scheme would be to seek income and minimise risk of capital loss by investing in a portfolio of fixed income securities. The scheme may invest a part of the assets in equity to seek capital appreciation. The scheme has tenure of three years with capital protection orientation at maturity. The scheme offers only growth option.

The new issue closes on 30th November. The minimum investment amount is Rs5,000. The minimum targeted amount is Rs1 crore. The scheme will be benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index. The scheme shall be managed by Dwijendra Srivastava (debt portion) and S Krishna Kumar (equity portion).

Jubilant Energy plans $85-mn share sale

Indian oil explorer Jubilant Energy would raise $85 million through institutional placement and plans to get listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on 24th November. The company would place 69,379,430 new shares with institutional investors at 77 pence per share to raise gross proceeds of $85 million.

Jubilant Energy, engaged in upstream E&P (exploration and production), is also mulling the admission of its entire issued share capital to trade on the AIM market of the LSE, which is expected to take place on 24th November.

The proceeds of the listing would be used to expand Jubilant's exploration and development of oil and gas assets, and for general corporate purposes.

"The money we are raising will enable us to carry out our work programme targeting near term value enhancing opportunities in the region as well as some of the high-impact exploration potential across our acreage," Jubilant CEO Ajay Khandelwal said.

Jubilant is currently part of a diversified Indian business group (Wider Jubilant Group) founded by Shyam Bhartia and Hari Bhartia with a presence in approximately 50 countries and revenues of around $1 billion for 2009-10.

Keep ESI, EPF schemes out of service tax

The Labour and Employment Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to keep Employees' State Insurance (ESI) and Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) schemes out of the ambit of service tax as they are social security schemes.

"If the provisions of service tax are made applicable to the ESI schemes, the cost of insurance will increase to the extend of service tax," the minister of state for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat said. He said his Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to consider "exemption of ESI scheme and EPF scheme from the applicability of service tax".

Mr Rawat said this to a written question in the Lok Sabha. His reply came in the backdrop of the Department of Revenue sending demand-cum-show cause notice to ESI Corporation which considered the ESI schemes at par with general insurance business and stated that activities of ESI Corporation are within the ambit of Insurance Act, 1938 and hence service tax provisions are applicable to it. A similar notice has also been received by the EPFO.

Punjab & Sind Bank to launch IPO in first half of December

Punjab & Sind Bank said its initial public offer (IPO) is likely to hit the capital market in the first half of December.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has already approved the draft prospectus filed by the bank for the IPO. The bank proposes to issue up to 4 crore fresh equity shares of Rs10 face value each at a price discovered through a 100% book building process. This would dilute the government's holding in the company by 17.9% and post-offer, its holding would come down to about 82%. At present, the government owns a 100% stake in the bank, which is the sole unlisted bank out of the 19 nationalised lenders in the country.

The proceeds from the IPO would be utilised for business expansion, adding that the funds raised would take care of the bank's credit growth requirement over the next two to three years. The book value of the bank stood at Rs119.5 at the end of September 2010.

To enhance employee participation in the IPO, Punjab & Sind Bank has opened demat accounts for every member of its 8,000-strong workforce. The bank proposes to reserve 20 lakh shares for subscription by eligible employees.