Liquid Bees ETF is one of the most popular ETF products in India alongwith Gold Bees and Nifty Bees.Note these Bees products are all sold by the Benchmark Asset Management Company which was recently bought by Goldman Sachs.Benchmark had pioneered the ETF products in India and had achieved a fair bit of success in these passive low priced financial products.Now almost all the major fund houses have started selling ETFs on the Nifty and Gold indicies.Other companies like India Infoline too are thinking of driving their entry into asset management space through focus on Exchange Traded Funds.Note Goldman Sachs also has ETFs on the Junior Nifty,Bank as well as Infrastructure.However they are not as popular and don’t have enough volumes as of now.
Liquid Bees Scheme & Investment Objective:
Goldman Sachs Liquid Exchange Traded Scheme (GS Liquid BeES) is an open ended liquid scheme & was previously known as Liquid Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme (Liquid BeES). GS Liquid BeES is the first Liquid ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) in the world. It is a unique liquid fund that is listed and traded on the stock exchange just like a share.
The investment objective of GS Liquid BeES is to enhance returns and minimize price risk by investing in a basket of call money, short-term government securities and money market instruments of short maturities while maintaining safety and liquidity. It seeks to provide current income, commensurate with relatively low risk while providing a high level of liquidity, primarily through a portfolio of treasury bills, Government Securities, Call Money, Collateralised Lending & Borrowing Obligation (“CBLO”) /similar instruments, Repos and Reverse Repos, and other Money Market Instruments.
Liquid Bees Features
AMC – Goldman Sachs Asset Management (India) Private Limited
Fund Manager – Payal Kaipunjal
Benchmark Index – CRISIL Liquid Fund Index
Exchange Listed – National Stock Exchange
Fund Inception Date – July 8, 2003
NSE Symbol – LIQUIDBEES
BSE Code – 590096
Pricing (Per Unit) Face Value – Rs 1000/- per unit
Expense Ratio – 0.60% annualised
Entry / Exit Load – Nil
Liquid BeES Value and Dividend Policy
The Face value of each unit of GS Liquid BeES is Rs.1000 and the Fund endeavors to keep the daily NAV at Rs.1000. GS Liquid BeES declares daily Dividend which is compulsorily reinvested in the Scheme.The returns will accrue to the investors in the form of daily dividend, which is compulsorily reinvested in the Scheme. The units arising out of dividend reinvestment will be credited to the investors once every month.
Liquid BeES Units
Minimum lot, when trading directly on the Exchange is One unit/share. But when trading directly with Fund the minimum lot is 2,500 units (Creation Unit).
Liquid BeES Trading and Settlement
GS Liquid BeES is listed and traded on the NSE -Capital Market Segment and is settled in the Rolling Segment on T+2 basis. GS Liquid BeES can be settled only in electronic (demat) mode.
Liquid BeES Asset Allocation
Treasury bills and Government Securities Call Money, CBLOs, Repos and Reverse Repos – 65% to 100%
Other Money Market Instruments – 0 to 35%
Liquid BeES Performance
GS Liquid BeES – 4.9% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 5.84% (Since Inception)
GS Liquid BeES – 5.61% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 6.6% (Last Five Years)
GS Liquid BeES – 5.34% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 6.24% (Last Three Years)
GS Liquid BeES – 7.13% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 7.36% (Last One Year)
GS Liquid BeES – 7.8% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 7.84% (Last Six Months)
GS Liquid BeES – 7.41% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 7.63% (Last Three Months)
GS Liquid BeES – 6.81% Crisil Liquid Fund Index – 7.04% (Last One Month)
Returns since inception are calculated from the date of allotment i.e. July 8, 2003. Dividends are assumed to be reinvested at the prevailing NAV. After payment of Dividend, NAV will fall to the extent of the payout and statutory levy (if applicable).
GS Liquid BeES Risks
One of the major drawback of this scheme is that of Stable NAV Risk. GS Liquid BeES may not be able to maintain a stable NAV at all times. Liquid BeES is designed such that the Fund will seek to use, reasonable endeavors to maintain the NAV at a fixed value by distributing income from Liquid BeES as it arises. However, there is always a risk that an underlying issuer could default or otherwise be subject to an impairment of credit quality such that the value ascribed to that Security may also be impaired.
In these circumstances, the Fund / AMC will be unable to maintain the NAV of Liquid BeES at a fixed value and it is likely in that event, that a loss of capital will occur. Such loss of capital could be material and sudden. Unit holders of GS Liquid BeES should not expect the AMC or an affiliate to purchase distressed assets from the Scheme, make capital infusions into the Scheme, enter into capital support agreements with Scheme or take other actions to help GS Liquid BeES maintain a stable NAV.
Disadvantages
1) The Fund gives the return in terms of increase in units which leads to addition of small fractions daily which can be difficult to sell.Goldman offers to buy back the fractional units but its too much trouble to sell off very small amounts to the AMC.
2) Liquid Bees is not suitable for retail investor because of higher brokerage charges as compared to the returns and higher trading
Advantages of Liquid Bees
1) There is a time lag between buying and settlement as well as selling and settlement.You can earn money during this time period through Liquid Bees.
2) Liquid Bees can be used for paying margins to brokers which allows you to earn money on your margin unlike cash which gives no returns.
3) Tax is zero on Liquid Bees as it is in the form of dividends which are not subject to tax under current Indian laws.
Also Read about other ETFs in India
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