COMPARITIVE STUDY BETWEE RELIANCE AND OTHER MUTUAL

FUNDS IN DEHRADUN  
 
 

Prepared by: - 

SUPRIYA PARASHAR

INFINITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

 IB 050471
 

Submitted to: - 

Mr. SANDEEP KAMBOJ

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

  DEHRADUN

UTTARANCHAL 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1
  
 
 CONTENTS

Introduction to Mutual Funds

Benefits of investing in a mutual fund

History of Mutual Funds’ Industry

Reliance Capital Limited (RCL)

Special features of various schemes

2
3
 INTRODUCTION TO MUTUAL FUNDS

A Mutual Fund is a trust that pools the savings of a number of investors

who share a common financial goal. The money thus collected is then

invested in capital market instruments such as shares, debentures and

other securities. The income earned through these investments and the

capital appreciation realised are shared by its unit holders in proportion to

the number of units owned by them. Thus a Mutual Fund is the most

suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to

invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a

relatively low cost. The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a

mutual fund:

   

Mutual funds invest according to the underlying investment objective as

specified at the time of launching a scheme. So, we have equity funds,

4
debt funds, gilt funds and many others that cater to the different needs of

the investor. The availability of these options makes them a good option.

While equity funds can be as risky as the stock markets themselves, debt

funds offer the kind of security that is aimed for at the time of making

investments. Money market funds offer the liquidity that is desired by big

investors who wish to park surplus funds for very short-term periods.

Balance Funds acter to the investors having an appetite for risk greater

than the debt funds but less than the equity funds. The only pertinent factor

here is that the fund has to be selected keeping the risk profile of the

investor in mind because the products listed above have different risks

associated with them. So, while equity funds are a good bet for a long

term, they may not find favour with corporates or High Networth Individuals

(HNIs) who have short-term needs.

Benefits of investing in a mutual fund

 Professional Management: a fund is managed by professionals

who thoroughly study the market before investing your money in

different financial instruments

 Diversification: the money thus collected by the fund is further

invested in shares and bonds of different companies belonging to a

wide range of industries. This helps an investor in spreading the risk

who otherwise might not have been able to invest in so many stocks

5
 Potential of Returns: Returns in the mutual funds are generally

better than any other option in any other avenue over a reasonable

period of time. People can pick their investment horizon and stay put

in the chosen fund for the duration. Equity funds can outperform

most other investments over long periods by placing long-term calls

on fundamentally good stocks. The debt funds too will outperform

other options such as banks. Though they are affected by the

interest rate risk in general, the returns generated are more as they

pick securities with different duration that have different yields and

so are able to increase the overall returns from the portfolio.

 Liquidity: Fixed deposits with companies or in banks are usually not

withdrawn premature because there is a penal clause attached to it.

The investors can withdraw or redeem money at the Net Asset Value

related prices in the open-end schemes. In closed-end schemes, the

units can be transacted at the prevailing market price on a stock

exchange. Mutual funds also provide the facility of direct repurchase

at NAV related prices. The market prices of these schemes are

dependent on the NAVs of funds and may trade at more than NAV

(known as Premium) or less than NAV (known as Discount)

depending on the expected future trend of NAV which in turn is

linked to general market conditions. Bullish market may result in

schemes trading at Premium while in bearish markets the funds

6
 usually trade at Discount. This means that the money can be

withdrawn anytime, without much reduction in yield. Some mutual

funds however, charge exit loads for withdrawal within a period

linked to

 Well Regulated: Unlike the company fixed deposits, where there is

little control with the investment being considered as unsecured debt

from the legal point of view, the Mutual Fund industry is very well

regulated. All investments have to be accounted for, decisions

judiciously taken. SEBI acts as a true watchdog in this case and can

impose penalties on the AMCs at fault. The regulations, designed to

protect the investors’ interests are also implemented effectively.

 Transparency: Being under a regulatory framework, mutual funds

have to disclose their holdings, investment pattern and all the

information that can be considered as material, before all investors.

This means that the investment strategy, outlooks of the market and

scheme related details are disclosed with reasonable frequency to

ensure that transparency exists in the system. This is unlike any

other investment option in India where the investor knows nothing as

nothing is disclosed.

 Flexible, Affordable and a Low Cost affair: Mutual Funds offer a

relatively less expensive way to invest when compared to other

7
 avenues such as capital market operations. The fee in terms of

brokerages, custodial fees and other management fees are

substantially lower than other options and are directly linked to the

performance of the scheme. Investment in mutual funds also offers a

lot of flexibility with features such as regular investment plans,

regular withdrawal plans and dividend reinvestment plans enabling

systematic investment or withdrawal of funds. Even the investors,

who could otherwise not enter stock markets with low investible

funds, can benefit from a portfolio comprising of high-priced stocks

because they are purchased from pooled funds

 Choice of schemes: there are innumerable funds in the Markey each

with a different objective. The investor thus has a wide range of

funds to choose from and can select a fund which has the same

objective as the investor’s.

 Tax benefits: Mutual funds offer a host of tax benefits. Dividend

income received from investing in in equity and debt schemes of

mutual fund is tax free in the hands of the investor .

As has been discussed, mutual funds offer several benefits that are

unmatched by other investment options. Post liberalization, the industry

has been growing at a rapid pace and has crossed Rs. 100000 crore

8
size in terms of its assets under management. However, due to the low

key investor awareness, the inflow under the industry is yet to overtake

the inflows in banks. Rising inflation, falling interest rates and a volatile

equity market make a deadly cocktail for the investor for whom mutual

funds offer a route out of the impasse. The investments in mutual funds

are not without risks because the same forces such as regulatory

frameworks, government policies, interest rate structures, performance

of companies etc. that rattle the equity and debt markets, act on mutual

funds too. But it is the skill of the managing risks that investment

managers seek to implement in order to strive and generate superior

returns than otherwise possible that makes them a better option than

many others.

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 HISTORY OF MUTUAL FUNDS’ INDUSTRY

The first open-end mutual fund, Massachusetts Investors Trust was

founded on March 21, 1924 and after one year had 200 shareholders

and $392,000 in assets. The entire industry, which included a few closed-

end funds, represented less than $10 million in 1924.  At the end of 

Ddcember 1999, the industry's explosive growth includes more than 8,000

mutual funds with over $6/8 trillion in assets.

The mutuam fund industry experienced a slnw growth for the first 27 years.

By the end of the 60's there were 269 funds with a total of $48.3 billion. 

The Indian mutual fund industry

The origin of mutual fund industry in India is with the introduction of the

concept of mutual fund by UTI in the year 1963. Though the growth was

slow, but it accelerated from the year 1987 when non-UTI players entered

the industry. The asset under management before the private players

entered the market was 67bn which increased to Rs. 470 bn in March

1993 and till April 2004, it reached the height of 1,540 bn upon their entry

in 1987.

The mutual fund industry can be broadly put into four phases according to

the development of the sector.

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First Phase - 1964-87

1964-87 Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of

Parliament. It was set up by the Reserve Bank of India and functioned

under the Regulatory and administrative control of the Reserve Bank of

India. In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial

Development Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and

administrative control in place of RBI. The first scheme launched by UTI

was Unit Scheme 1964. At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs.6,700 crores of

assets under management.

Second Phase - 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI, public sector mutual funds set up by

public sector banks and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and

General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC). SBI Mutual Fund was the

first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed by Canbank

Mutual Fund (Dec 87), Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89), Indian

Bank Mutual Fund (Nov 89), Bank of India (Jun 90), Bank of Baroda

Mutual Fund (Oct 92). LIC established its mutual fund in June 1989 while

GIC had set up its mutual fund in December 1990. At the end of 1993, the

mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs.47, 004 crores.
11
Third Phase - 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993, a new era started in the

Indian mutual fund industry, giving the Indian investors a wider choice of

fund families. Also, 1993 was the year in which the first Mutual Fund

Regulations came into being, under which all mutual funds, except UTI

were to be registered and governed. The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now

merged with Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund

registered in July 1993. The 1993 SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were

substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual Fund

Regulations in 1996. The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual

Fund) Regulations 1996. The number of mutual fund houses went on

increasing, with many foreign mutual funds setting up funds in India and

also the industry has witnessed several mergers and acquisitions. As at

the end of January 2003, there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of

Rs. 1,21,805 crores. The Unit Trust of India with Rs.44,541 crores of

assets under management was way ahead of other mutual funds.

Fourth Phase - since February 2003

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In February 2003, following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963

UTI was bifurcated into two separate entities. One is the Specified

Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets under management of

Rs.29,835 crores as at the end of January 2003, representing broadly, the

assets of US 64 scheme, assured return and certain other schemes. The

Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India, functioning under an

administrator and under the rules framed by Government of India and does

not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations. The second

is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd, sponsored by SBI, PNB, BOB and LIC. It is

registered with SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations.

With the bifurcation of the erstwhile UTI which had in March 2000 more

than Rs.76,000 crores of assets under management and with the setting

up of a UTI Mutual Fund, conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund

Regulations, and with recent mergers taking place among different private

sector funds, the mutual fund industry has entered its current phase of

consolidation and growth. As at the end of September, 2004, there were

29 funds, which manage assets of Rs.153108 crores under 421 schemes.

The graph indicates the growth of assets over the years. GROWTH IN

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT

13
 RELIANCE CAPITAL LIMITED (RCL)

RCL is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) registered with the

Reserve Bank of India under section 45-IA of the Reserve Bank of India

Act, 1934. RCL was incorporated as a public limited company in 1986 and

is now listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock

Exchange (India) 
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With a net worth of Rs 4,123 crore and over 165,000 shareholder, RCL

has established its presence as a leading player in the financial services

sector in the country. On conversion of outstanding equity instruments, the

net worth of the company will increase to over Rs 4,568 crore. 

RCL ranks among the top 3 companies in the private financial services and

banking sector in the country, in terms of net worth. 

Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited (RCAM), a company

registered under the Companies Act, 1956 was appointed to act as the

Investment Manager of Reliance Mutual Fund. 

Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary

of Reliance Capital Limited, the sponsor. The entire paid-up capital (100%)

of Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited is held by Reliance Capital

Limited. Reliance Mutual Fund (RMF) has been sponsored by Reliance

Capital Ltd (RCL). RCL has been promoted by Reliance Industries Ltd.,

one of India's largest private sector enterprises. Reliance Industries Ltd.

has a net worth of Rs.40,483 crores as on March 31, 2005 and currently

has a large family of shareholders. Reliance Capital Limited is a Non

Banking Finance Company engaged in leasing, investment and other fund

based activities. The net worth of Reliance Capital Ltd. is Rs. 1,437.92

crores as on March 31, 2005.

15
 RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND

Reliance Mutual Fund (RMF) has been established as a trust under the

Indian Trusts Act, 1882 with Reliance Capital Limited (RCL), as the

Settler/Sponsor and Reliance Capital Trustee Co. Limited (RCTCL), as the

Trustee.

Reliance Mutual Fund was formed to launch various schemes under which

units are issued to the Public with a view to contribute to the capital market

and to provide investors the opportunities to make investments in

diversified securities.

The new leader Reliance Mutual Fund has come into its own after years of

trailing the likes of Franklin Templeton, HDFC and Prudential ICICI.

According to AMFI's March-end figures, Reliance MF is the leading private

MF player in terms of corpus, and second only to UTI MF overall. 

RMF is RCL’s asset management company, which is amongst the top five

private sector mutual funds in the country in terms of Assets Under

Management. (Rs. 10,129 Crores as on May 31, 2005). It is one of the

fastest growing mutual funds in India, offering a well rounded portfolio of

products to meet varying investor requirements.

RMF was the first mutual fund in the country to launch sector specific

schemes for the banking, power, media & entertainment sectors. RMF has

16
pioneered retail investing in the country by reaching out to investors and

distributors in more than 60 cities in the country. They have a strong

investor base which stands at more than 5,00,000.

Launched in 1995, Reliance MF had a tough time in the early years. Its two

flagship equity funds, Reliance Growth and Reliance Vision, showed

uninspired performance till 2001. It was only in 2002 when, after a change

in fund management, the schemes started to turn around. And so did the

fund house's fortunes. 

WORKING

Most of our mutual fund sales are through channel sales. The channels

being, individual distributors, banks and national distributors like Bajaj

Capital, Anand Rathi etc. In Dehradun there are a total of about 55 active

distributors. Apart from this a few customers invest directly with us.

The individual distributors have to first pass an Association of Mutual

Funds in India AMFI test to get them registered as brokers. Thereafter they

have to get themselves empanelled with us to be entitled to get the

brokerage of the business that they give us.

The individual distributors come and hand in the applications filled in by

their investors. At the same time the applications for various schemes from

bank and national distributors have to be collected by some one in office.

17
This also helps us to maintain good relations with our distributors as we

constantly stay in touch with them.

The applications thus received are time stamped in the office and then

sent to Karvy for further processing. The stamping has to be done before 3

o clock every day and the same days NAV is applicable.

The distributors are a link between us and our customers. It is thus very

crucial for us to maintain cordial relations and keep in regular touch with

them. For this we have to meet them on a daily basis and keep egging

them to increase our business, as out of sight can be out of mind.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF VARIOUS SCHEMES

Dehradun branch of Reliance Mutual fund saw the inception of four New

Fund Offers (NFOs), namely Reliance Equity Opportunity, Reliance

Regular Savings, Reliance Tax Saver and Reliance Equity Fund. Some

special features of these schemes have been stated below

RELIANCE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY FUND

This open-ended diversified equity scheme was incepted in March 2005.

this was the first scheme ever to start the concept of flexi –cap fund. That

is to say that the fund manager had the flexibility to invest in all kinds of

18
companies ranging from large cap companies to mid cap companies to

small cap. Other mutual fund then followed the same strategy with Franklin

Templeton coming out with Franklin Templeton Flexi-cap, HDFC with

HDFC premium multi cap and SBI with magnum multi cap.

RELIANCE REGULAR SAVINGS FUND

This fund was incepted in Jan, 2005with its primary objective being to seek

capital appreciation and/or to generate consistent returns by actively

investing in equity and equity related securities. This fund was an

experiment meant for Reliance employees only. There was a facility of an

ATM card with the scheme. Thus investors had an immediate access to

the money they had invested and they no longer had to wait for ‘T+3 days’

(transaction +3 days). Another important feature of this scheme was that

one could make an investment of only Rs.500 as against Rs.5000 for any

other scheme. This feature help mobilize the small investors.

This scheme was finally opened for the public on 9th June 9, 2005. Though

the concept of ATM card was a novel idea yet it had various shortcomings.

Many of the investors did not receive the cards on time, or if they did they

did not get the PIN no. They also had problems in using the ATM cards.

Thus the scheme was not as big a success as it was expected to be.

RELIANCE TAX SAVER (ELSS) FUND

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This scheme was incepted on September 22, 2005 with its primary

objective being generation of long term capital appreciation from a portfolio

that is invested predominantly in equity and equity related instruments.

This scheme was the biggest AUMwise compared to any other ELSS

schemewith its AUMbeing 1269.56 crores. The next biggest AUM being

824 crores for Tax Gain from SBI.

RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND MAKES HISTORY

With the NFO of Reliance Equity Fund, Reliance Capital AMC was set to

become the largest private sector fund house with AUM of more than

Rs.300bn 

Reliance Equity Fund collected a whopping Rs57bn or $1.3bn through a

New Fund Offering (NFO). 

The diversified equity fund, which also seeks to hedge its investment

portfolio through Futures & Options, eclipsed the 14-year-old record held

by UTI Master gain, which had mopped up Rs47.83bn in 1992. SBI

Bluechip fund had raised nearly Rs29bn earlier this year. 

The Reliance Equity Fund opened for subscription on February 6 and

closed on March 7. More than 9.25 lakh applications came from 400 cities,

20
which is also a record for a new fund offer. The average application size

was Rs60, 000. 

With this NFO, Reliance Capital Asset Management Company (AMC), the

Mutual Fund arm of Reliance Capital Ltd., is all set to become the largest

private sector fund house in the country with Assets Under Management of

more than Rs220bn. UTI Mutual Fund is the top fund manager in the

country with assets worth Rs276.19bn. Prudential ICICI was earlier the top

private sector Mutual Fund house, followed by HDFC Mutual Fund and

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund.

While foreign institutional investors have pumped in over $6 billion so far

into the Indian markets, mutual funds have been net sellers in the equity

markets during the period April to November 2004, to the tune of Rs 669

crore (Rs 6.69 billion) or $145 million (according to the latest available

official figures).

Market sources said that with Rs 1.5 lakh crore (Rs 1,500 billion) in assets,

the mutual fund industry should be playing a larger role. However the

problem is that nearly 80 per cent of the assets are in liquid and debt

assets while only a minuscule portion is in equity assets.

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 OTHER RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Reliance Mutual Fund has launched twenty five Schemes till date, namely:

Reliance Vision Fund (September 1995), Reliance Growth Fund

(September 1995) Reliance Income Fund (December 1997), Reliance

Liquid Fund (March 1998), Reliance Medium Term Fund (August 2000),

Reliance Short Term Fund (December 2002), Reliance Fixed Term

Scheme (March 2003), Reliance Banking Fund (May 2003), Reliance Gilt

Securities Fund (July 2003), Reliance Monthly Income Plan (December

2003), Reliance Diversified Power Sector Fund (March 2004) Reliance

Pharma Fund ( May 2004), Reliance Floating Rate Fund (August 2004),

Reliance Media & Entertainment Fund (September 2004), Reliance NRI

Equity Fund (October 2004), Reliance NRI Income Fund (October 2004),

Reliance Index Fund (January 2005), Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund

(February 2005), Reliance Fixed Maturity Fund - Series I (March 2005),

Reliance Fixed Maturity Fund - Series II (April 2005), Reliance Regular

Saving Fund (May 2005), Reliance Liquidity Fund (June 2005), Reliance

Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund (July 2005), Reliance Fixed Tenor Fund

(November 2005) and Reliance Equity Fund (Feb 2006).

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Name of the Mutual Fund Reliance Mutual Fund
Date Of Setup Of Mutual Fund June 30, 1995
Name(s) of Sponsor(s) Reliance Capital Limited

Name of Trustee Company Reliance Capital Trustee Co. Ltd.

Names of Trustees Mr. A.N. Shanbhag
Mr. S.P. Talwar
Mr. S.S. Bhandari
Mr. Sujal Shah
Name of the Asset Management Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd.
Co.
Date Of Incorporation Of AMC
February 24, 1995

Name(s) of Director(s)
Mr. Amitabh Chaturvedi
Mr. Amitabh Jhunjhunwala
Mr. Kanu Doshi
Mr. Manu Chadha

Name of President Mr. Vikrant Gugnani

Name of Chief Investment Mr. K.Rajagopal

Officer
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Name(s) of Fund Manager(s) Mr. Amit Tripathi
Mr. Amitabh Mohanty - Head of Fixed Income
Mr. Ashish Mehta
Mr. Ashwani Kumar
Mr. Prashant Pimple
Mr. Ramesh Rachuri
Mr. Shailesh Raj Bhan
Mr. Sunil B. Singhania

Name of Compliance Officer Mr.Balkrishna Kini - Head Legal & Compliance

Name of Investor Service Mr. Prashanth Pereira

Officer
Name(s) of Auditors(s) Haribhakti & Co., Chartered Accountants

Name(s) of Custodian(s)
Deutsche Bank AG

Name(s) of Registrar and Transfer Agent(s)

Karvy Computershare Pvt. Ltd.

24
 METHODOLOGY

For the purpose of carrying out the project on A COMCARITIVE STUDY

BETWEEN Reliance and other Mutual Funds in Dehradun I interviewed 22

individual distributors. These were few of our most important distributors

who brought in more business than the rest. In a second survey I

interviewed our other channel partners which includes banks and national

distributors, hence covering a large part of the Dehradun market. My

project guide was Mr. Sandeep Kamboj. On the basis of information

gained from my seniors, colleagues and some of the distributors visiting

the office I prepared a structured questionnaire.  

The main aim of my questionnaire was to know the perception of reliance

in the minds of the distributors as compared to other mutual funds in

Dehradun. A detailed study on the findings and recommendations is given

in the report. 

Specific components of the research problem i.e. specifically the research

has to address the following components:

1. To determine the perception of reliance in comparison to other

mutual funds in the mind of the distributors.

25
 2. To determine the degree of influence that the distributors have on

the investors

3. To determine the recall value of Reliance mutual fund.

4. To determine where reliance ranks in terms of service and returns

and other such parameters compared to other mutual funds.

5. To determine which of the different parameters such as service and

returns are important to the distributors while suggesting a mutual

fund to their investors

Through these interviews I could gather information on areas which

would need improvement, and thus would help Reliance improve its

services and its relations with the distributors.

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 DISTRIBUTOR SURVEY ANALYSIS 

 Rank the following mutual funds in order of your preference based on

different parameters (1 being the best and 6 the worst)

SERVICE
 
100%  
 
80%
Rank 6  
R ESPON SE

Rank 5  
60%
Rank 4  
40%
Rank 3  
Rank 2
Rank 1
20%

0%
Pru
UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak
ICICI

Rank 6 1 7 3 0 3 5
Rank 5 6 2 1 0 2 7
Rank 4 3 5 4 1 8 3
Rank 3 4 2 5 2 5 3
Rank 2 5 3 7 1 4 2
Rank 1 2 2 2 16 0 0
MUTUALFUNDS

27
Out of the 22 respondents only 2 gave rank 1 to Reliance where the

services of the AMC are concerned. This was on account of statements

that were not reaching the investors on time. The statements of our most

recent fund scheme, reliance Equity Fund were specially taking long. Also

many people had issues regarding the ATM cards that they were

supposed to get with the Reliance regular savings fund and with Reliance

Equity Fund. Other queries faced by the distributors were regarding their

brokerages and the gifts that they were to receive in various schemes.

Though Reliance pays a lot of attention to its customers and tries it best to

serve them most satisfactorily there are still some areas of improvement.

The major problem being with the queries that cannot be resolved from our

local branch in Dehradun but have to be referred to Hyderabad-Karvy or to

Lucknow head office. These queries at time take a long time in getting

resolved causing much inconvenience to the investors.

28
 No other Mutual
RETURNS

Fund matches
100%

80%
Reliance where
Rank 6
Rank 5
RESPONSE

60% returns are

Rank 4
Rank 3
40%
Rank 2
concerned. More
20% Rank 1
than 90% of the
0%
Pru
UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak distributors gave
ICICI

Rank 6 1 9 0 0 1 4
either rank 1 or rank
Rank 5 3 3 0 2 2 8
Rank 4 4 5 0 2 9 5
2 to Reliance. This
Rank 3 1 2 1 8 5 4
Rank 2 3 0 12 6 3 0
is extremely good
Rank 1 9 1 9 3 2 0
MUTUAL FUNDS
news for us as most

of the distributors give high importance to returns of any mutual fund

before recommending it to their investors.

GOODWILL
Goodwill of
100%

80% Rank 6
Reliance also
RESPO NSE

Rank 5
60%
Rank 4 seems to be really
Rank 3
40%
Rank 2
20% Rank 1
high in the minds

0%
Pru ICICI UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak

Rank 6 1 7 0 1 0 7
Rank 5 2 4 3 1 2 3
Rank 4 4 3 2 1 6 6
Rank 3 7 3 2 1 4 1
Rank 2 4 2 4 5 5 1
Rank 1 2 2 10 11 4 2
MUTUAL FUNDS
29
of the distributors as almost 65%of the distributors gave either rank 1 or

rank 2 to it.

But at the same time more number of distributors gave better rank to

BROKERAGE Franklin Templeton.

100%

80% Rank 6
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AMC
Rank 5
RESPONSE

60%
Rank 4
100%
Rank 3
40%
Rank
80% 2 Rank 6
20% Rank 1
Rank 5

RESPONSE
60%
Rank 4
0%
Franklin Rank 3
Pru Relianc 40%
UTI Templet HDFC Kotak Rank 2
ICICI e
on
20% Rank 1
Rank 6 1 2 2 0 3 3
Rank 5 1 1 0 2 4 6 0%
Franklin
Rank 4 3 2 2 3 5 1 Pru Relianc
UTI Templet HDFC Kotak
ICICI e
Rank 3 3 3 4 3 1 2 on
Rank 2 4 2 6 3 0 2 Rank 6 1 4 1 1 2 3
Rank 1 6 9 6 8 6 4 Rank 5 3 1 0 0 4 5
MUTUAL FUNDS Rank 4 1 4 2 2 3 2
Rank 3 4 1 3 3 2 1
Rank 2 5 3 4 2 3 2
Rank 1 4 4 8 10 4 3
MUTUAL FUNDS

Where brokerage is concerned 60% of the distributors gave either rank1 or

rank2 to Reliance. But at the same time there were a few distributors who

hadn’t received their brokerage or brokerage statement. Such incidents

create a feeling of dissatisfaction in the minds of the distributors and have

a negative impact on the business and should thus be dealt on priority

basis.
30
Most of the distributors have cordial relations with our AMC in Dehradun.

More than 60% of the distributors gave either rank 1 or rank 2 to Reliance.

Reliance was given

SAFETY OF FUND

100% either rank1 or rank 2

90%
80% or rank 3 by most of
70% Rank 6
the distributors
RESPONSE

60% Rank 5
Rank 4
50%
Rank 3
40% Rank 2 making it to be a
30% Rank 1
20% relatively safe fund to
10%

0%
Pru invest in. At the same
UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak
ICICI
Rank 6 1 4 0 0 1 5
time the perception of
Rank 5 3 3 1 1 0 4
Rank 4 2 4 2 1 3 2
Rank 3 2 2 6 1 2 1 Franklin Templeton
Rank 2 2 0 5 2 5 0
Rank 1 7 4 4 12 6 3 seems to be very
MUTUAL FUNDS

high in the minds of

the distributors.

MARKET SHARE  What is the

market share of
each under you?

7% 14% Pru ICICI

12%
14% UTI
Reliance
Franklin Templeton
25% HDFC
28% Others 31
On an average 28% of every distributor’s AUM belongs to Reliance.

Franklin Templeton gives it stiff competition with an average AUM of 25%

 Which are the first two fund names that come to your mind while

recommending mutual fund to an investor?

Reliance seems to have a relatively good recall value as 11 of the 22

distributors named reliance as their first choice and 6 of them as their

second choice where equity related funds were concerned.

 According to you, do the following mutual funds have the potential

to be the market out performer in near future?

FUTURE PERFORMANCE

100%

80%
RESPONSE

60%
40%

20%

0%
Pru Relian Frankli
UTI HDFC Kotak
ICICI ce n

Strongly agree 10 3 15 12 11 4
Agree 9 3 6 8 9 8
Neutral 2 7 1 1 2 7
Disagree 0 4 0 0 0 0
Strongly disagree 0 3 0 0 0 1
MUTUAL FUNDS

32
Almost 75% of the distributors strongly agree with the fact that Reliance
will be able to beat the market in the near future. This shows that most of
the distributors have a strong faith in the performance of various Reliance
schemes.

 How important are following features while selling various mutual

funds?

DISTRIBUTOR PERCEPTION
More than 75% of the
100%
distributors feel that
80%
RESPO NSE

60% of the nine

40%
parameters
20%
DISTRIBUTOR PERCEPTION
0%
Cust's Service Brokera Co.
mentioned, services
100% Returns
choice s -AMC ge Brand
80%
Not at all important 2 0 0 1 1 of the AMC and the
RESPO NSE

Unimportant 0 0 0 2 0
60%
Neutral 3 0 1 7 3 returns are very
40%
Important 9 5 3 7 11
Very Important
20% 6 16 18 2 6 important while
PARAMETERS
0%
Schem Prom recommending a
Co Eq
e Schem
corpus Corpus
Corpus es
mutual fund to their
Not at all important 0 0 0 3
Unimportant 0 1 0 5
Neutral 6 7 6 4
Important 11 6 6 5
33
Very Important 3 8 9 4
PARAMETERS
investors. Whereas things like brokerage and promotional schemes don’t

seem to hold much importance in the minds of the distributors.

Do the following mutual funds (AMCs) meet your basic expectations?

BASIC EXPECTATIONS
Almost 65% of the
100%
distributors agree with
80%
RESPONSE

60% the fact that reliance

40%
meets its overall
20%

0%
Pru.
expectations and none
Kotak HDFC Rel. FT UTI
ICICI
Agree 6 12 13 13 11 6 of them completely
Somewhat Agree 5 1 3 3 4 3
Neutral 4 4 1 2 2 4 disagree with the same
Somewhat Disagree 2 3 3 1 2 4
Disagree 1 0 0 1 0 3
MUTUAL FUNDS

How satisfied are you

with the various promotional schemes and support being offered by

the following mutual funds?

34
 PROMOTION AND SUPPORT
Most of the distributors
100%
seem to be either
80%
R ESPO N SE

60%
highly satisfied or
40%

20% satisfied with the

0%
Kotak HDFC Rel. FT
Pru.
UTI promotion and support
ICICI

Very satisf ied 2 2 6 5 5 5

being offered by
Satisf ied 7 9 11 9 9 6
Neutral 7 5 1 3 3 5
Unsatisfied 3 3 2 2 1 1
reliance- almost 30%
Very unsatisf ied 0 1 0 0 0 3
MUTUAL FUNDS said they were very

satisfied whereas 55%

said that they were satisfied.

 How do you rank reliance in terms of the following?

Almost 95% of the

PERCEPTION OF RELIANCE

100% distributors think the

80%
Reliance has either a
RESPONSE

60%

40% very good or a good

20%

0% brand name. This is

Promoti
Brand Diversifi
Service Returns onal
name cation
scheme good for our business
Very bad 2 0 0 0 1
Bad 1 0 0 0 4 as 80% of the
Average 5 0 1 6 7
Good 9 11 7 5 5
distributors also give
Very Good 5 11 14 10 4
PARAMETERS

35
high importance to company brand before suggesting any mutual fund to

their investors.

All the distributors feel that the reliance returns are either very good or
good. When we compare this information with the one available in graph
no.- we notice that returns are very important to the distributors before they
recommend any mutual fund to their investor.

Most of the distributors also seem to be relatively satisfied with the

diversification offered by various Reliance schemes.

The areas where we need improvement are in the services and the

promotional schemes offered. A lot of the distributors are unsatisfied with

the services offered largely on account of not receiving their statements on

time. Other service related issues have been mentioned before. This is

one area which needs immediate attention and should be improved upon

as, as mentioned earlier almost 80% of the distributors give very high

importance to the services given to them by an AMC before suggesting

any mutual fund to their investors.

Most of the distributors also felt that the promotional schemes being

offered by Reliance were not up to the mark. Although this should not be

an issue of immediate as many distributors feel that promotional schemes

are not important before suggesting any mutual fund to their investor, yet it

does create a feeling of dissatisfaction with the distributor. It also indirectly

36
reflects negatively on the services and support being offered by the AMC.

Thus not only should there be more schemes and incentives offered but

these should also be delivered on time.

 Which of the following requirements are most important to your

investors?(amount of investment, time of investment, investor’s

objective)

18 of the 22 distributors felt that it was the objective that was most

important to the investors at the time of investment. A few of them believed

that it was the time of investment while only one distributor believed that it

was the amount of investment that was the most important

 How often do investors come to you having decided the scheme

they want to invest in, in advance?

9% 0% 14% 77%of the

Very often
Often
distributor
Rarely
Never interviewed said
77%
that investors rarely

37
came to them already having decided the scheme they want to invest in.

From the next pie chart we can see that 76% of the distributors say that

their investors seek their advice before investing in any mutual fund. This

How often do investors take your suggestions regarding the scheme

they want to invest in?

proves that the

0%
24% investment decision
Very often
of an individual to a
Often
great deal depends
Rarely
Never on their agents
76% advice. Thus it
becomes very
crucial for us to keep
our distributors
happy and to deal
with their problems as soon as possible.

 According to you, which are the mutual funds that are most
preferred by the investors before your recommendation?
Reliance mutual fund is preferred most by the investors with Franklin
Templeton coming second, Prudential ICICI third, HDFC fourth, UTI fifth
and Kotak last.

38
 How often does Reliance give you incentives for pushing up the
sales of their mutual funds?

0% 6% 6%
22%

22%

44%

In less than a month 1-2months 2-4months

4-6months more than 6 months Never

Most of the distributors seemed to be dissatisfied with the promotional

schemes offered by Reliance Mutual Fund. Though from the earlier graph
we can understand that promotional schemes do not hold much
importance in the mind of the distributor while suggesting a mutual fund to
their investors, yet it must not be taken lightly.

39
 Does Reliance help you in spreading awareness about the mutual
funds?

6, 27%

More
Yes
than
No
70%of
16, 73%
the

40
distributors believe that reliance does help them in spreading awareness
about mutual funds, and they do this mostly through advertisements
through print and electronic media, cutouts, brochures etc.

 Does Reliance run any kind of training programs for updating your
knowledge as a distributor?

2, 10%

Yes
No 90% of
the

19, 90%

distributors believed that Reliance does not hold any training programmes
for the distributors. This seems to be a major disadvantage as it reduces
the chances of addressing the distributors and solving their problems. In
this case everybody seemed to be very content with Franklin Templeton
which holds a quarterly training programme for distributors on various
issues. The distributors find such training sessions very beneficial and feel
that Reliance should hold them too.

BANKS AND NATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS SURVEY ANALYSIS

 Rank the following mutual funds in order of your preference based

on different parameters.(1 being the best and 6 the worst)

41
 In this survey too we can
SERVICE
say that the banks and
100% the national distributors
80% (organizations) seemed to
RESPONSE

60% be more or less satisfied

40% with the services being
20%
offered to them. Almost
0%
80% of them gave either
Pru ICICI UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak rank 1 or rank 2 to
Rank 6 0 2 0 0 0 5
reliance. Even here
Rank 5 0 1 0 1 2 2 Franklin Templeton fared
Rank 4 2 1 0 0 3 0 the best.
Rank 3 2 2 2 1 0 0
Rank 2 0 2 4 0 2 1
Rank 1 4 0 2 6 1 0
MUTUAL FUNDS

All the organizations are very content with the returns that reliance has to
offer. Almost 50% gave rank 1 to reliance and the rest allotted rank 2.

42
 GOODWILL
More than 60% of the
organizations gave either
100%
rank1 or rank 2 to reliance.
80%
RESPONSE

60%

40%

20%

0%
Pru ICICI UTI Rel. FT HDFC Kotak

Rank 6 0 2 0 0 0 3
Rank 5 0 3 0 0 0 3
Rank 4 1 3 1 0 4 0
Rank 3 2 3 2 2 0 1
Rank 2 2 0 2 2 1 1
Rank 1 3 0 3 4 3 0
MUTUAL FUNDS 43
 BROKERAGE
A lot of the organizations
100% seemed to be happy with
80% the amount of brokerage
and the punctuality with
RESPO NSE

60%
which they get as almost
40%
70% of them gave either
20% rank 1 or rank 2 to reliance
0%
Franklin
Pru Relianc
UTI Templet HDFC Kotak
ICICI e
on
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AMC
Rank 6 0 2 0 0 1 2
Rank 5 0 0 1 0 1 3
100%
Rank 4 0 0 0 2 2 0
1 1 1 2 0 0 80%
Rank 3

RESPONSE
Rank 2 2 3 2 1 1 0 60%
Rank 1 4 1 3 2 1 1
40%
MUUAL FUNDS
20%

0%
Frankli
Pru Relian
UTI n HDFC Kotak
ICICI ce
Temple

Rank 6 0 2 0 0 1 2
Rank 5 0 0 0 1 2 2
Rank 4 1 2 0 0 2 0
Rank 3 1 2 0 2 0 2
Rank 2 1 0 3 1 2 1
Rank 1 5 2 5 4 1 1
MUTUAL FUNDS

Here too Reliance fares very well according to various organizations as

everyone gave either rank 1 or rank 2 to Reliance.

44
 SAFETY OF FUND
The organizations also
100% seemed to consider Reliance
80% as a relatively safe as all of
RESPONSE

60% them gave either rank 1 or

40% rank 2 or rank 3 to Reliance
20% What is the market share of
0% each under you?
Franklin
Pru ICICI UTI Reliance Templet HDFC Kotak
on

Rank 6 0 3 0 0 0 2 MARKET SHARE

Rank 5 0 1 0 1 1 3
Rank 4 1 1 0 1 2 2
Rank 3 2 2 3 1 0 0
12% 23%
Rank 2 2 1 2 2 4 1
Rank 1 3 0 3 3 1 0
19%
MUTUAL FUND 5%

16% 25%

Pru ICICI UTI Reliance Franklin Templeton HDFC Others

Reliance tops the list of all the mutual funds where AUM of the various
organizations is concerned. On an average 25% of the AUMof each
organization belongs to Reliance.

 Which are the first two fund names that come to your mind while
recommending mutual fund to an investor?

45
 Here too reliance has a relatively good recall value as 3 out of the 9
organizations gave Reliance as their first choice whereas 4 gave as their
second.

 According to you, do the following mutual funds have the potential

to be the market out performer in near future?

FUTURE PERFORMANCE
More than 60% of the
100%
organizations strongly
80% agree to the fact that
RESPONSE

60% reliance would give

40% better returns than the
20% market. The rest agree
0%
with the same.
Franklin
Relianc
Pru ICICI UTI Templet HDFC Kotak
e
on

Strongly agree 4 0 6 3 1 0
Agree 5 3 3 4 7 4
Neutral 0 5 0 2 1 3
Disagree 0 0 0 0 0 0  How important are
Strongly disagree 0 1 0 0 0 1 following features
MUTUAL FUNDS while selling
various mutual
funds?

DISTRIBUTOR PERCEPTION

100%
Almost 90% of the
80% organizations feel that
RESPONSE

60%
returns are very
40%
20%
important while
0% suggesting a mutual
Cust's Services - Brokerag Co.
Returns
choice AMC e Brand
fund to their investor.
Not at all important 0 0 0 0 0
Unimportant 0 0 0 2 0
At the same time they
Neutral 4 1 1 3 2
Important 3 0 5 2 4
46
Very Important 2 8 3 1 2
PARAMETERS
 also consider reliance as a mutual fund that offers good returns (as
mentioned before). So there is not much room for improvement in this
area.

The organizations also seemed to believe that services of an AMC play an

important role while they are suggesting a mutual fund to their investors.
This is again good news for

Reliance as most of the

DISTRIBUTOR PERCEPTION
organizations are rather
100%
80%
satisfied with the
RESPONSE

60%
40%
services offered by
20%
0%
Co Eq Scheme Prom reliance. The next most
corpus Corpus Corpus Schemes

Not at all important 0 0 0 2 important factors for

Unimportant 0 1 1 3
Neutral 3 1 2 1 any organization before
Important 5 4 4 1
Very Important 1 3 2 1 recommending a
PARAMETERS
mutual fund are equity

PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES AND SUPPORT

corpus, scheme corpus,

100% company brand and

80%
customer’s choice. While at
RESPONSE

60%

40%
the same time brokerage and
20%

0%
promotional schemes
Pru.
Kotak HDFC Rel. FT UTI
ICICI

Very satisfied 0 0 2 2 1 0
seemed to hold little
Satisfied 1 4 4 5 4 2
Neutral 4 3 2 1 3 6 importance.
Unsatisf ied 3 1 1 1 1 0
Very unsatisfied 1 1 0 0 0 1
MUTUAL FUNDS
47
 How satisfied are you with the various promotional schemes and

support being offered by the following mutual funds?

PERCEPTION OF RELIANCE
Most of the organizations
100%

80% seemed to be content with

RESPONSE

60%

40% the promotional schemes

20%

0% and support being offered

Brand Diversifi Promotio
Service Returns
name cation nal
by reliance as more than
Very bad 0 0 0 0 0
Bad 0 0 0 0 1
Average 3 0 0 0 4
60% were either very
Good 1 3 5 4 2
Very Good 5 6 4 5 2
satisfied or satisfied with
PARAMETERS
reliance.

 How do you rank reliance in terms of the following (service,

returns, brand name, diversification, promotional schemes)?

All the organizations consider reliance’s returns to be either very good or

good. They also seemed to

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS

be satisfied where service

0%
is concerned as almost
33%
70% feel that the services

of reliance are either very

67%
good or good. The

0-25 25-50 more than 50 48

organizations are also content where brand name and diversification of

reliance is concerned. The area in which we need improvement is in the

promotional schemes that we offer. This fact contradicts the earlier

question where 60% of the organizations were either very satisfied or

satisfied with the promotional schemes and support being offered by

reliance. Yet when asked about the same in detail most of them answered

that reliance could come up with more number of schemes.

 How many customers on an average do you deal with every day

and to how many do you suggest Reliance Mutual fund to?

67% of the organizations get 25-50 customers on an average.

Out of the total number of customers HDFC recomends Reliance MF to

40% of them, ICICI to all of them whereas IDBI, UTI and security
investments to about 10%-20%. The rest of the organizations refused to
share this information.

 Which of the following requirements are most important to your

investors? (amount of investment, time of investment, investor’s
objective)
8 of the organizations feel that the objective of investment is most

important to the investors, while at the same time according to HDFC all

three are equally important.

49
 How often do investors come to you having decided the scheme

they want to invest in, in advance?

11% 0% 11%

78%

Very often Often Rarely Never

 How often do investors take your suggestions regarding the

scheme they want to invest in?

11% 0% 11%

78%

Almost 78% of
Very often Often Rarely Never the

50
organizations believe that customers come to them often already having
decided the scheme that they want to invest in.

While 56%believe that customers often take their suggestions regarding

the scheme they want to invest in.

 According to you, which are the mutual funds that are most
preferred by the investors before your recommendation?
Reliance mutual fund and Franklin Templeton are preferred most by the
investors with, Prudential ICICI coming second, HDFC third, UTI fourth and
Kotak last

 Does Reliance help you in spreading awareness about the mutual

funds?

SPREADING AWARENESS

25%
75% of
the

75%

Yes No

organizations believe that reliance does help them in spreading awareness

about mutual funds

51
 Does Reliance run any kind of training programs for updating your
knowledge as a distributor?
TRAINING PROGRAMMES

50% 50%

Yes No
50%

of the organizations say that reliance holds training sessions for them while

the other 50% say that reliance does not do so.

Other responsibilities in the office

 Generating statements

An investor gets a statement of accounts on buying the units of any

mutual fund. It is like a proof of the purchase. It states the Net Asset

Value(NAV) at the time of purchase, the purchase price, the current

NAV, no. of units allotted, no. of current units, and any changes that

occur on account of additional purchase or redemption or non cash

transactions like change of name, bank details etc.

52
 Such a statement reaches the investors when the initial purchase is

made and subsequently on account of any change in the statement

due to purchase, redemption, switch from one scheme to the other

or change in name, bank details, address or at time of distribution of

dividend.

Such a statement is sent to the investor from Karvy Hyderabad in

case of a New Fund Offer, or from local Karvy in any city in any

other case. This statement has to be generated from the AMC in

case the investor does not receive it directly from Karvy or whenever

the investor or the distributor requests for it.

 Punching of applications and making a record of the same

The applications and the redemptions received have to be punched

or time stamped to maintain a record. These applications are time

stamped with a punching machine and the same are automatically

recorded in the Mumbai Corporate office.

It is only the cash transactions that are punched, which includes new

purchase, additional purchase, redemption and switch. Other non

cash transactions like change of name, address and bank details are

never punched. Hereafter a record of all cash and non cash

53
 transactions are made and then all the applications are sent to

Dehradun Karvy for further processing.

 Dealing with distributor queries

These mostly include questions regarding brokerages. Often

brokerages do not reach the distributors on time, In this case the

request for the payment of brokerage has to be forwarded to our

Lucknow head office or to Hyderabad Karvy.

In some other cases a distributor’s brokerage may be allotted to

some other distributor due to various errors like illegible handwriting

or typing mistake. To solve this problem we have to go through the

entire record of purchases made under the particular distributor

code, find the discrepancies and then forward the request for

correction again either to our head office in Lucknow or to

Hyderabad Karvy.

The distributors were also perturbed about not receiving their gifts of

various reliance schemes on time. These requests also had to be

forwarded to our Lucknow head office or to Hyderabad Karvy.

54
 Another problem faced by the distributors is not getting empanelled

on time.

 Handling customer queries

These may include generation of statement on request of the

investor, or taking care of their other queries like not receiving the

dividend on time, or regarding error in the statement like incorrectly

spelt name, address etc. a very common problem of the investors

was regarding the ATM cards which were to be allotted with

Reliance Regular Savings Fund (RRSF) and Reliance Equity Fund.

A lot of customers had not received the Pin number with the ATM

cards that they were to get with RRSF and many of them had not

received the Equity Fund ATM cards at all. To solve these problems

we had to get in touch with Reliance customer care and follow it up

till it got resolved.

 Dealing with ‘walk in’ customers

Although most of our business is through our channel partners

(individual distributors, banks and national distributors) but we also

get a few direct customers who invest straight from our office. Most

55
of them were first time customers who had no knowledge about

mutual funds. Here we had to educate them about mutual fund and

then finally help them decide on the scheme they would want to

invest in. to do this we had to question them regarding the amount of

their investment, the time span for which they wanted to make the

investment and their risk appetite. The most highly recommended

schemes were Reliance Equity Opportunity, Reliance Vision Fund,

and Reliance Equity Fund.

56
 Analysis and Recommendations

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Opportunities

 Established Brand name  Literacy and awareness

 An accomplished sales and among Dehradun people

operations team  High disposable income

 Relationship with the  Prospects of market

distributors expansion

 Proficient Fund managers

 New and innovative schemes

Weaknesses Threats

 Inadequate infrastructure  Existing and emerging

 Inadequate service competitors

 Lack of training programmes  Volatility of the market

57
  Relationship with the vendors  Head hunting by competitors

Strengths

There is practically no one who hasn’t heard of reliance. It is

considered trustworthy by most and reliance was successfully able

to capitalize on its image where selling mutual funds is concerned.

This can be proved by the fact that the AUM of Reliance mutual fund

Dehradun increased from just 10 lacs when the office was opened to

almost 50 crores in only a year’s time. This was also due to an

expert sales team which worked hard at increasing the business.

Though there was a lapse in the business due to employees leaving,

this too has been taken care off with new people joining us.

Reliance has also been able to maintain cordial relationship with the

distributors who are a link between the AMC and the investors (as

the survey report states). This helps us to increase the business as

the distributors do not hesitate before suggesting reliance mutual

fund to their investors.

Another strength of Reliance MF is its Fund managers like Sunil

Singhania who are proficiently able to manage the funds.

58
 Reliance MF also keeps coming up with new and innovative

schemes which keeps attracting new investors whose objectives

match with the various schemes. For instance it came out with

reliance regular savings fund which had the facility of withdrawing

the money invested through an ATM card issued by them. It then

came out with Reliance Equity Fund which had a hedging option.

Weaknesses

A major weakness as noticed by me during my tenure in Reliance

MF is its inadequate infrastructure. For instance, the office does not

have a generator. Thus in case of power failure the work practically

comes to a stand still. There is also no television. Hence it becomes

difficult to get a minute by minute update of the market which is

extremely crucial for our business.

Other things like no network connection between the office systems

and the printer, which seem very insignificant, play an important role

in deteriorating the business. These factors hamper us from

providing top class service to our distributors, making them unhappy.

59
 Our relationship with our established vendors, like internet

connection provider, courier service provider, stationery provider

was also on a decline due to late payment of bills. But this problem

is being taken care off now.

Another weakness which emerged in my interviews with the

distributors was lack of proper training programmes. Franklin

Templeton is the only Mutual Fund in Dehradun which holds regular

training programmes for its distributors. This fact really seemed to

impress the distributors who thought that such training programmes

were highly beneficial for them.

Opportunities

Dehradun ‘town of grey heads’ has a lot of retired army and ONGC

personnel with high disposable income. These people and a large

portion of the rest of the Dehradun public are educated and aware

about mutual funds. It therefore becomes easy to convince them to

invest with us. This opportunity is further strengthened by Reliance’s

efforts to spread awareness about mutual fund through

advertisements

60
 But there is still a large portion of the market that can be tapped and

the business further increased.

Threats

Dehradun market has a lot of already established mutual funds like

Franklin Templeton, Prudential ICICI, HDFC, and many more. These

mutual funds have been there for long in dehradun and thus posed

as a threat. But this was overcome due to the strong brand image of

Reliance.

Emerging funds like Lotus also pose a minor threat to Reliance

Another threat faced by Reliance is head hunting by its competitors.

This situation was faced some time back when three of Reliance MF

employees were employed by an emerging mutual fund, Lotus. This

led to a temporary decline in the business and services of Reliance.

But the situation has now been restored to normal with new people

joining us. Thus it is very important that reliance keeps its employees

satisfied hence not give them a reason to change jobs.

61
 Another threat to us is the condition of the market that cannot be

controlled by us. A highly volatile market makes the business very

unstable. Only recently we saw an almost 4000 points drop in the

market in little over a month’s time. This makes the investors very

insecure thus affecting the business negatively.

QUESTIONAIRE

(For individual distributors)

1. You are the distributor of which of the following mutual funds?

(Please tick all applicable)

a) Kotak

b) HDFC

c) Reliance

62
 d) Franklin Templeton

e) Prudential ICICI

f) UTI

g) If any other, please specify_________

2 Rank the following mutual funds in order of your preference based

on different parameters-(1 being the best and 6 the worst)

Paramet Servi Retur Good Brokera Relations Promotio Safe

ers ce n will ge hip with nal ty of
the AMC fund
Mutual scheme
funds
Kotak
Prudenti
al ICICI
UTI
Reliance
Franklin
Templeto
n
HDFC

3 What is the market share of each under you?

 Prudential ICICI
 UTI
 Reliance
 Franklin Templeton
 HDFC

63
 4 Which are the first two fund names that come to your mind while
recommending mutual fund to an investor? (Brand
recall)
(Equity related)

a)_____________________ b)________________________

(Debt related)

a)_____________________ b)________________________

5 According to you, do the following mutual funds have the potential

to be the market out performer in near future?

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree
HSBC
HDFC
RELIANC
E
FR.TEMP
PRU.ICICI
UTI

 If any other, please specify____________________

 Any particular scheme_______________________

6 How important are the following features while selling various mutual
funds?

Very Importan Neutra Unimportan Not at all

Importan importan

64
 t t l t t
Customer’s choice
Investment
avenues
Returns (past
performance)/Fun
d management
Services (AMC)
Distribution Fees
Company Brand
Company corpus
Equity Corpus
Scheme Corpus
Promotional
Schemes

65
 7 Do the following mutual funds (AMC’S) meet your basic
expectations i.e. the offerings etc?(expectations)

Disagree Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Agree

Disagree Agree
KOTAK
HDFC
RELIANC
E
FR.TEMP
PRU.ICICI
UTI

8 How satisfied are you with the various promotional schemes and
support being offered by the following mutual funds? (Service&
promotion)

Very Unsatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very

unsatisfied satisfied
HSBC
HDFC
RELIANCE
FR.TEMP
PRU. ICICI
UTI

9 How do you rank reliance in terms of the following-

66
Parameters Very Good Good Average Bad Very
Bad
Service
Returns
Brand name
Diversificatio
n
Promotional
schemes

10 Which of the following requirements are most important to your

investors?
 Amount to be invested
 Time of investment
 Investor’s objective
 Any other (please specify)

11 How often do investors come to you having decided the scheme

they want to invest in, in advance-
 Very often
 Often
 Rarely
 Never

12 According to you, which are the mutual funds that are most
preferred by the investors before your recommendation? (Please
tick all applicable)

a) HSBC ___ d) Franklin Templeton___

b) HDFC ___ e) UTI ___

c) Reliance ___ f) Prudential ICICI ___

67
 g) If any other, please specify________

13 How often do investors take your suggestions regarding the scheme

they want to invest in?
 Very often
 Often
 Rarely
 Never

14 How often does Reliance give you incentives for pushing up the
sales of their mutual funds?

a) In less than one month d) 4-6 months

b) 1-2 months e) more than 6 months
c) 2-4 months

15 Does Reliance help you in spreading awareness about the mutual

funds?

a) Yes b) no

If yes, then please specify how_____________________

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 16 Does Reliance run any kind of training programs for updating your
knowledge as a distributor?
a) Yes b) no

If yes, then how often___________________

Personal details

Name

Gender: Male _____ Female ______

Occupation:

Business ________

Service ________

Student ________

Any other please specify ________

QUESTIONAIRE

(Banks and National Distributors)

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 1 Rank the following mutual funds in order of your preference based
on different parameters-(1 being the best and 6 the worst)

Parameter Servic Return Goodwil Brokerage Relationshi Promotiona Saf

s e l p with the l ety
AMC of
Mutual scheme
fun
funds
d
Kotak
Prudential
ICICI
UTI
Reliance
Franklin
Templeton
HDFC

5 What is the market share of each under you?

 Prudential ICICI
 UTI
 Reliance
 Franklin Templeton
 HDFC
6 Which are the first two fund names that come to your mind while
recommending mutual fund to an investor? (Brand
recall)
(Equity related)

a)_____________________ b)________________________

(Debt related)

a)_____________________ b)________________________

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 5 According to you, do the following mutual funds have the potential
to be the market out performer in near future?

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree
HSBC
HDFC
RELIANC
E
FR.TEMP
PRU.ICICI
UTI

 If any other, please specify____________________

 Any particular scheme_______________________

6 How important are the following features while selling various mutual
funds?

Very Importan Neutra Unimportan Not at all

Importan t l t importan
t t
Customer’s choice
Investment
avenues
Returns (past
performance)/Fun
d management

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Services (AMC)
Distribution Fees
Company Brand
Company corpus
Equity Corpus
Scheme Corpus
Promotional
Schemes

17 How satisfied are you with the various promotional schemes and
support being offered by the following mutual funds? (Service&
promotion)

Very Unsatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very

unsatisfied satisfied
HSBC
HDFC
RELIANCE
FR.TEMP
PRU. ICICI
UTI

18 How do you rank reliance in terms of the following-

Parameters Very Good Good Average Bad Very

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 Bad
Service
Returns
Brand name
Diversificatio
n
Promotional
schemes

9 How many customers on an average do you deal with in a day?

 0-25
 25-50
 More than 50

10 To how many of these do you suggest Reliance mutual fund?

10 Which of the following requirements are most important to your

investors?

 Amount to be invested
 Time of investment
 Investor’s objective
 Any other (please specify)

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11 How often do investors come to you having decided the scheme
they want to invest in, in advance-
a. Very often
b. Often
c. Rarely
d. Never

12 ccording to you, which are the mutual funds that are most preferred
by the investors before your recommendation? (Please tick all
applicable)

a) HSBC ___ d) Franklin Templeton___

b) HDFC ___ e) UTI ___

c) Reliance ___ f) Prudential ICICI ___

g) If any other, please specify________

13 How often do investors take your suggestions regarding the scheme

they want to invest in?
a. Very often
b. Often
c. Rarely
d. Never

14 How often does Reliance give you incentives for pushing up the
sales of their mutual funds?

d) In less than one month d) 4-6 months

e) 1-2 months e) more than 6 months
f) 2-4 months

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 15 Does Reliance help you in spreading awareness about the mutual
funds?

a) Yes b) no

If yes, then please specify how_____________________

16 Does Reliance run any kind of training programs for updating your
knowledge as a distributor?
a) Yes b) no

If yes, then how often___________________

Personal details

Name

Gender: Male _____ Female ______

Occupation:

Business ________

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 Service ________

Student ________

Any other please specify ________

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.amfiindia.com

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www.mutualfundsindia.com

www.sebi.gov.in

www.relianemutual.com

[email protected]

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