The mobilisation under the bond fund has taken the total assets under management to Rs 62 crore. The asset management company also manages a gilt fund, Dundee Sovereign Trust, and a short-term debt plan, Dundee Liquidity Fund. Investors in Dundee Bond Fund have the option to invest in a public sector bond fund (Plan A) and a corporate bond fund (Plan B).

``The banks are still in the process of collating figures and collections are in the range of Rs 28 crore. The final collections could go up to Rs 30 crore,'' said Anil Sahgal of Dundee Mutual Fund. The scheme has received almost equal inflows in corporate and PSU bond funds.

PSU Bond Fund is the first fund in the industry which will invest exclusively in debt securities from public sector companies. The fund willbecome an ideal investment vehicle for provident funds once they are allowed to put their quota of PSU investments in PSU-dedicated bond funds.

Currently, provident, gratuity and superannuation funds invest 40 per cent of their corpus (mandatory) in PSU and FI bonds while 20 per cent is discretionary investment. Non-government PFs were allowed only this year to invest in government securities through 100 per cent gilt funds.

In the corporate bond fund, the fund will put money in private and public sector debt instruments, bonds, debentures, gilts and strips. In strips, a debt instrument is broken into several `strips' of varying maturities and sold at different prices.

According to fund officials, the bond fund will invest towards the long-end of the debt market. ``We expect a fairly stable interest rate scenario with some weakness in interest rates in the shorter-end,'' said Sahgal.

The minimum investment in the bond fund is Rs 5,000 with facility of systematic investment and withdrawal plans. Whilethere is no entry load, there is an exit load of 0.5 per cent on investments upto Rs 1 lakh if the fund redeemed in less than six months. The bond fund offers a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual dividend options. The bond fund also has an appreciation option.

After three products dedicated to the debt market, Dundee Mutual Fund has now lined up an open-end balanced fund which will invest around 60 per cent of its corpus in equities while rest in debt securities. The fund is likely to launch the balanced scheme in the next few weeks. ``We will follow up our balanced fund with a pure equity fund in 2000,'' pointed out Sahgal.