Renault India plans 5 new launches in the next three years, including all-new Duster and an EV “We are going to make the Red Ocean more red,” claims Venkatram Mamillapalle, managing director of Renault India Private Limited, referring to the cutthroat competition in the compact SUV space at the sub-Rs 10 lakh price point. Renault has the Kiger vying for road space with the Hyundai Venue, Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Tata Punch and Nexon, and Kia Sonet, besides its sibling the Nissan Magnite. Renault has a strategy up its sleeve. Venkatram says the company is looking to add more value to their cars, by offering more features than the competition, without a price increase. When asked if this would hit the company’s bottom line, he’s quick to point out that this value addition was possible because of cost optimisation by the engineering team, where significant cost savings were achieved on the production line itself, allowing the company to add more features and pass on the benefit to customers without taking a hit. For instance, in the entry-level car space the Kwid competes with the Maruti Alto – a segment that has just the bare-basic mandated safety features. The company says by adding features like tyre pressure monitoring, and an 8-inch touchscreen with Android Auto, as well as new colours and later working on adding six airbags, it hopes to get an edge over its rival. It will also offer an automatic (automated manual transmission – AMT) variant. Similarly, the Triber, which is the largest-selling vehicle for Renault, will see more feature additions in a bid to grab more market share. Renault claims that in rural markets it already has more than 41 percent share. It will get a new TFT instrument panel, wireless charger, and driver armrest among other features. The Triber has virtually no competition being priced lower than the Maruti Ertiga in this MPV segment, and competing only with the Maruti Eeco on some fronts. As for the Kiger, its premium sub-4 metre compact SUV offering, it is competing in a pretty crowded market. To stand out, it will need to dole out a bunch of features – some include leatherite seats, steering wheel, red calipers, and auto-folding mirrors with full keyless entry. The company’s market share in the passenger car market is currently at about 1.2 percent, having taken a hit financially during Covid as well as the Russia-Ukraine war. The company had nearly 35 percent market share in Russia but had to leave overnight. An inventory clean-up strategy also meant reducing production for a while. Venkatram is confident that the company will go back to over 2 percent share this year. It has announced over Rs 5,300 crores in investment in India, which will go towards its future products. It will be launching five products over three years, including in B+ and C segment of SUVs, which include bringing back the popular Renault Duster that was discontinued a year ago. Besides, it’s also working on introducing a small EV, but will do so only after the charging network expands – it’s in talks with BPCL and HPCL for charging stations. As far as sourcing batteries go, Venkatram says that he is optimistic about local sourcing, given that companies such as Vinfast and Ola are setting up close to 200 GW of cell capacity in total in India. That’s when dependence on imported cells will come down and local sourcing can take off, he says. The company has also unveiled its new logo, which will soon appear on the grille of vehicles and in dealerships. A year ago, it also entered the used car business under the brand “Renew” a clever interplay of the words Renault and new, which will deal with pre-owned Renault cars.
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In its consultation paper, Sebi has suggested that trustees of mutual funds should focus on market abuse by AMC, its employees and mis-selling by the AMC to increase the asset base.
Also, trustees should be responsible for fairness of fees and expenses charged by the AMC, compare its performance with peers and ensure that AMC’s sponsor is not getting any undue advantage.
In addition to the core areas, the trustees should be responsible for periodically reviewing the steps taken by AMCs for the folios which do not contain all KYC attributes with bank details.
Further, Sebi has suggested that trustees and their resource persons should independently evaluate the extent of compliance by AMC and not merely rely on AMC’s assurances.
To facilitate trustees’ supervision, AMCs should provide them with analytical information.
Presently, the trustees primarily rely on the AMCs for ensuring compliance with the applicable rules.
Under the rules, trustees hold the property of the mutual fund in trust for the benefit of the unitholders. The trustees appoint an AMC to float schemes for the mutual fund and manage the funds mobilised under various schemes, in accordance with the investment objectives.
“In view of the increasing scale and reach of the mutual fund industry, trustees’ role in respect of unitholders’ protection assumes even greater significance,” Sebi said on Friday.
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Over the past decade there has been a five-fold increase in the size of the mutual fund industry. The assets under management (AUM) has surged from Rs 7.93 lakh crore in November 2012 to Rs 39.89 lakh crore in December 2022.
To ensure that trustees devote time and attention to their core responsibilities, Sebi has suggested that for fulfilling other responsibilities, trustees may rely on professional firms such as audit firms, legal firms, merchant bankers for carrying out due diligence on their behalf.
The Sebi also listed some duties trustees can delegate to AMCs. This include ensuring that all systems are in place prior to the launch of any scheme by the AMC, and calculating any income in the mutual fund due to the fund and any income received in the mutual fund for unitholders.
The regulator has proposed to provide a one year time to existing trustees with board of trustee structure to convert into a trustee company, from governance point of view.
Presently, two structures for trustees are permitted — corporate and board of trustees structure. Moreover, there are a few mutual funds which have the board of trustees structure while the trustees of all other mutual funds have adopted the structure of a trustee company.
Considering the enhanced role of trustees over the period of time, Sebi has suggested to increase the minimum number of trustees to adequately perform their functions. Presently, the minimum number of trustees prescribed is four.
Also, it has been proposed that the chairperson of the trustee company should be an independent director.
Sebi has suggested that apart from the meeting of the audit committee of AMCs and trustees (which mostly comprises of independent directors), the board of AMCs and the board of trustees may be mandated to meet at least once a year to discuss the issues concerning the mutual funds.
The regulator proposed that the existing MF Regulations on AMC and its obligations may be amended to include additional clauses with respect to the obligations of the board of AMC.
The proposed amendment may include a clause which casts an obligation on the board of AMC to ensure that all the activities of the asset management company are in accordance with the provisions of these regulations.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought comments from public till February 24 on these proposals.