Mumbai, May 31: Curtains came down on Unit Trust of India's 39-year-old US64 scheme today with about 18-lakh unitholders being issued 6.75 per cent tax-free tradeable bonds for which trading is scheduled to begin from June 16, 2003. "The scheme will cease to exist in its current form and UTI-I, which manages US64 assets, is sending bonds to unitholders", UTI mutual fund president Madhav Kumar told here.
The bonds issued for units would be traded on the National Stock Exchange and over the counter exchange of India from June 16, Kumar said.
Currently, the scheme has an asset base close to Rs 10,000 crore with substantial holding in leading companies such as Reliance Industries, ITC and oil PSUs.
The scheme gave handsome returns to retail investors until mid-nineties but it also had its share of problems with a major crisis in 1999.
It suffered a setback in July 2001 when the trustees decided to skip dividend and suspend trading in US64 units after its investment portfolio was adversely affected by the stock market crash in March early that year.
The Union government stepped in with a financial assistance package including special unit repurchase scheme. The government also commenced work on amending UTI Act through which US64 and all assured schemes were transferred to UTI-I. Bureau Reoprt