UTI Infra Fund-Dividend Top Performer globally: Lipper

New Delhi, Mar 5 (UNI) UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend has emerged as the 'Top Performing Infrastructure Fund' over a three-year period ended 2007 and ranked numero uno globally by Lipper Global data.

''This Fund, managed by UTI Asset Management Company Ltd (UTI AMC), is one amongst two Indian Infrastructure Funds and nine other international Infrastructure Funds (having a track record of a minimum of three years) globally that qualified as per the Lipper Global data requirements,'' Lipper Business Manager (India) Sumit Mehra told reporters here.

Of all the infrastructure funds tracked by Lipper globally which have a three-year track record as of December 31, 2007, UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend has delivered the highest return over a period of three years ended 2007, he added.

UTI-Infrastructure Fund was launched in March 2004 as an open-end equity fund.

''The investment objective of UTI-Infrastructure Fund is to provide investors the benefits of capital appreciation and income distribution by investing in companies engaged in the sectors such as metals, building materials, oil and gas, power, chemicals, engineering, etc,'' UTI AMC Chief Marketing Officer Jaideep Bhattacharya.

The scheme has two options viz Dividend Option and Growth Option, he said adding that the fund enjoys the trust of over three lakh investors and has a corpus size of Rs 1, 608 crore.

''The Fund's performance is linked to the overall economic growth of the country as the sectors in which the fund invests are directly linked to the GDP growth of India,'' said fund manager of UTI-Infrastructure Fund Sanjay Dongre.

''Infrastructure was one of the dominant themes of 2007.

With the tremendous amount of money being raised on the Indian Infrastructure story, and the possibility of softening of interest rates within India, the infrastructure theme is expected to continue to garner interest, albeit one can't argue with the fact that valuations are also quite rich within this space now,'' Mr Mehra said.

The Union Budget 2008 too talks about the government's focus on the infrastructure sector with urban infrastructure spending expected to touch Rs 6,870 crore crore and rural infrastructure spending gauged at about Rs 14,000 crore, resulting in more business for companies related to this sector.

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