The two schemes will be merged and Aditya Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund – Plan A will be the surviving scheme.
The merger shall be effective after the close of business hours on Friday, July 28, 2023 (Effective Date) or the immediately following business day, if such day is a Non-Business Day.
Accordingly, the existing unitholders of the merging schemes and surviving scheme are given an option to exit, that is, either redeem their investments or switch their investments to any other schemes of Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund within the exit option period starting from Thursday, June 29, 2023 till Friday, July 28, 2023 (both days inclusive and upto 3.00 pm on Friday, July 28, 2023) at applicable NAV, without payment of any exit load.
The Exit Option can be exercised during the Exit Option Period by submitting a valid redemption / switch-out request at any Official Point of Acceptance of the Fund.
The notice also mentions that unitholders who have pledged or encumbered their units will not have the option to exit unless they procure a release of their pledges / encumbrances prior to the submission of redemption / switch requests. Unitholders should ensure that their change in address or bank details are updated in records of the fund as required by them, prior to exercising the exit option for redemption of units. Unit holders holding units in dematerialized form may approach their Depository Participant for such changes. In case units have been frozen / locked pursuant to an order of a government authority or a court, such exit option can be executed only after the freeze / lock order is vacated / revoked within the period specified above. In case of unit holders under merging schemes who had registered for systematic investment facilities such as Systematic Investment Plan/Systematic Transfer Plan/Systematic Withdrawal Plan decide to continue their investments i.e. do not opt for the Exit Option, then such SIP/STP/SWP registrations will continue to be processed under the respective Plan/Option of surviving scheme from the effective date and no fresh registration will be required.
However, unit holders who do not wish to continue the SIP/SWP/STP (unless the systematic transfer is registered as from and between the merging schemes and surviving scheme) under the surviving scheme, must apply for cancellation of their registrations before the Effective Date.
The units of the surviving scheme allotted to the unitholders of the merging scheme shall be treated as fresh subscription in the surviving scheme. However, the date of allotment at the time of subscription in merging schemes shall be considered as the allotment date for the purpose of applicability of the exit load period at the time of redemption of such units in the surviving scheme. Unitholders should note that after the merger, amounts relating to unclaimed redemption and IDCW will be transferred in the name of the surviving scheme.
As per the notice, the investment objective, investment pattern, annual scheme recurring expenses and all other provisions as contained in the SID of the surviving scheme will remain unchanged post the merger except insertion of provisions with respect to Creation of Segregated Portfolio. Accordingly, interest of unitholders of surviving scheme is not adversely affected and no new scheme will come into existence as a result of the aforesaid merger.
The fund house has sent a written communication to all the existing unitholders of merging schemes and surviving scheme informing the existing Unit holders details about the merger including, basis of allocation of units into surviving scheme, tax implication, financial information and features of the schemes, etc.
For taxation purpose, as per the amendments, allotment of units in surviving scheme/plan, pursuant to merger, to unit holders of merging scheme/plan who decide to continue will not be considered as redemption of units in merging scheme/plan and will not result in short term / long term capital gain / loss in the hands of the unit holders.
