Magnum Global Fund is due for redemption in September, 1999. The fund was launched in August, 1994. The scheme currently manages net assets of Rs 74 crore and has a current net asset value of Rs 8.15. ``The process of making the fund open-end has started as we have filed a revised offer document with Sebi,'' said Niamatullah, managing director, SBIMF.

Magnum Global Fund is likely to continue with its investment policy of higher allocation to debt instruments. The fund plans to invest 80-100 per cent of its corpus in equities, PCDs, FCDs and bonds.

Although the units of the fund are listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange, they are not frequently traded since the fund offers repurchase. For the period ended January 31, 1999, the fund has given a one-year return of over 18 per cent.

The trend to convert closed-end equity funds into open-end has gained momentum. In the last one year, as many as four closed-end funds have gone open-end with a combined corpus of over Rs 2000 crore. Taurus Starshare, with a corpus of Rs 100 crore and Canbonus with a corpus of Rs 125 crore, are likely to go open-end soon. ``The AMCs have realised that raising money in equity funds in current market conditions is a Herculean task. Hence, they are cleaning portfolio to improve performance before making the fund open-end,'' says the head of a mutual fund. ``Its a positive sign since it is forcing AMCs to rework on their investment and management strategies. If the AMCs are able to persist with active fund management, they are likely to see fresh inflows in funds that go open-end,'' added an analyst.

The performance of Magnum Global Fund has also been lacklustre for most part of its tenure. ``The fund managers will now have to improve the NAV to retain the corpus once the fund goes open-end,'' said an analyst.

The fund managers have initiated a restructuring exercise with the top ten holdings accounting for more than 45 per cent of total assets as on September 30, 1998. The top ten holdings include SBI, NIIT, HPCL, HLL, Cipla, Carrier Aircon, Bausch & Lomb India and BFL Software. Earlier, the fund had focussed on banking, finance and chemical industries. The fund was launched at a time when the indices were at their peak and hence, most of the investments were made at a high level.