Prudential-ICICI is launching its FMCG fund on February 15, ahead of Kothari Pioneer's similar fund. Till recently, Prudential-ICICI had delayed the launch of the fund as it was felt that the FMCG stocks are ``over-valued.'' But the announcement of Kothari Pioneer's plans to launch an FMCG fund, appears to have forced Prudential-ICICI not to waste any more time.

However, Ajay Srinivasan, managing director of Prudential-ICICI is not prepared to buy the competition theory. ``We had anyway planned for the launch of the FMCG fund in February,'' says Srinivasan. ``Since it's an open-end fund, we want to attract money on the basis of the scheme's performance,'' he adds.

Prudential-ICICI has kept a minimum collectiontarget of Rs 1 crore in the FMCG fund. ``The initial offer will remain open for 45 days and we expect to start with a healthy corpus,'' says Srinivasan. While the FMCG stocks are currently overvalued, Srinivasan plans to make investments as and when opportunities come. ``The moot point is to get the cash for investments first and then pick up stocks at the right time. The initial offer will close towards March-end and by then, the market would have seen and probably absorbed the impact of the budget.''

Meanwhile, Kothari Pioneer expects Sebi approval for its FMCG and pharma funds. ``The Sebi approval is likely to come in the next ten days and the fund should hit the market by end of the month,'' says Prem Khatri, VP, marketing, Kothari Pioneer. ``The launch of these sector-specific funds is backed by the performance of the IT fund,'' he adds. The initial offer from Kothari FMCG will remain open for three weeks.