Ideas on investment, equity market, products and taxation

Monday, September 3, 2007

Best of both the worlds - Fixed income with upside of Equity

The much-awaited Structured Product is here finally which promises besides Capital Guarantee, a worst-case scenario of 21 per cent absolute return and a best-case scenario of upto 81 per cent in 37 months duration.

Scheme is being offered by Benchmark Asset Management Company which is renowned for Exchange-traded funds. The underlying assets in this structured product (usually defined as a debt obligation of a triple-A-rated debenture issued by a financially sound company - in this case, it is DSP Merrill Lynch Capital Ltd.)

Details attached in the file but key points are below:

Structured Products are products which have a higher tax-efficiency than fixed deposits or debt instruments because they offer assured downside protection and pre-defined returns (usually linked to market returns.)
This product is Structured Product Series XI from Benchmark AMC and has been fine-tuned by our bank after elaborate feedback from discerning clients across a wide cross-section
In a bank deposit, you get taxed at 33% but in a structured product which has debt instruments listed within 3 months, your tax outgo is only 10% plus surcharges - there's a steep advantage in favor of structured products.
In the present product, for the first time, apart from Capital guarantee, there's an absolute return promised at the end of 39 months (3 months more because of time-frame to wind down positions in nifty-linked instruments).
Higher of floor payout of 25 per cent on the face value of the debenture at maturity, if Nifty does not close at or above 190% of its intial valuation date (17th September 2007) on any of the monthly observation dates from 13th month till 36th month (24 observations) or
participation in the Nifty within the range of movement of Nifty from 0% to 189.99% (in which case the return can go as high as 89.99% * participation, which is 0.90 or 90 per cent = 81 per cent.
If Nifty closes at or above 190 per cent on any of the monthly observation dates, the payout is capped at a fixed payout of 30 per cent absolute return on maturity.
The payout has another condition which accordingly subjects it a scenario where the base-case return works out to be 21 per cent. (please see illustration to understand the scenario)
Expenses Ratio is only 4% one-time - no charges subequent will be levied.
Reporting is done every six months for Investment Performance.
Minimum Investment is Rs.10 lacs plus fees. Say, for Rs.10 lacs, the amount of investment is Rs.10.40 lacs.
Offer closes on 10th September, 2007
Ideal for:
Individuals, Trusts, Institutions who seek capital protection plus fixed return plus potential of upside return.
The product is itself structured in such a manner that it is tax-efficient and gets an annualised return of over 7% in worst-case, over 10% in medium-case scenario and higher return in other scenarios of outperformance of Nifty.
Investors who invest significantly into fixed deposits, RBI Bonds, Post-Office Schemes - who are risk-averse.
Investors, who having substantial exposure to Equities, are looking to lock their ESOP share-sale proceeds or Rebalancing proceeds or Equity assets into Higher-Return seeking Avenues without capital loss risk.
Investors who do not expect Nifty to go beyond 190 per cent in the next three years (with Domestic Elections, etc.) should lock portion of the Assets in this instrument. (This is reasonable assumption, because Nifty today is at 4412 points. Expecting it to cross 8382 points in next 3 years is a tall order given that stock prices of the top 20 companies have already priced in.) This is a significant pointer to consider this Asset-Class with upside potential with zero downside and a reasonable fixed-income return.

See attached for more details

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