No exposure to real estate, Satyam: LIC MF

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with S Sarkar on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: First and foremost, what is your exposure to Satyam and secondly LIC Mutual Fund had several funds which had exposure to several PTCs and commercial paper issued by real estate companies in your bond fund and in your plans - what is the current? Are you getting interest from them? Are they being redeemed? Is it still a problem area?

A: First about Satyam, we don't have any exposure in Satyam. There was a very small exposure in our index funds which of course we disposed off early late December or something like that. Regarding your next question, actually we had some exposure in real estate companies and till the date we had them. We were getting the interest regularly from them. However looking at the investor sentiments etc, we decided to get out of those instruments - some of them matured and some we could get out of them and as of date we do not have any real estate exposure in our schemes.

Q: Was there any loss you had to write-off because of having to dispose them off as practically distressed assets?

A: No. They were rated papers - high investment grade rated papers and we could dispose them off without any losses.

Q: Since you have spoken on Satyam and there is also news coming in, will you at these levels consider buying this particular stock? The news is that the government might announce a CEO and CFO pretty soon.

A: It will be making a very speculative kind of statement, so I would refrain from making comment on this.

Q: At current point in time, how much are you in cash and how do you look at the next couple of months? Would you want to remain in cash or would you want to utilize more of your cash?

A: As I have mentioned earlier also, to what extent one will be in cash that will depend on what type of funds one is having. One is your view on the market and what is the type of fund, what is the type of liabilities you are having. For example if more inflows are coming in my liquid funds, necessarily being liquid funds I have to keep liquid instruments and substantial cash also. If it comes in a longer-term fund, obviously then one can take a call depending on the type of funds in which the inflow is coming and if it is broader market - a diversified equity fund - then we can take a call on the market and make investment and as we have said, that always our approach has been on stock specific basis and I am sure on a stock specific basis one can take a view and invest also.  

Q: In your funds off late have you seen any redemption pressure?

A: No in fact I am happy to tell you and through this to our viewers that from December onwards, we are seeing very good inflow in our funds and as a result our AUM has grown substantially and we are happy about it. It shows that investors have reposed their confidence in LIC Mutual Fund and we are grateful to our investors. We are sure that we will give them value for their investments.