Planning expansion

What factors would increase the appetite for investing in mutual funds beyond the top 15 cities?
The key factors for expanding reach in these markets are the limited distribution network and investor awareness. Unfortunately, due to the volatile market environment, distributors are witnessing muted volumes and we are not seeing an increase in new distributor registrations. In addition, we have to ensure that transaction/servicing costs are kept in control for servicing these clients and KYC norms are simplified.

Have the direct plans seen greater retail participation?
At this stage, majority of the flows into Direct Plans, especially in liquid and liquid plus space are institutional in nature. However, we have also witnessed a rise in flows into Direct Plans of certain fixed income funds and FMPs, some of this is also being led by distributor advice. Direct route is likely to appeal to self-driven investors. However, investors need to weigh the savings brought about by a lower expense ratio, against the benefits of a financial advisor, who can help analyze their goals and risk profile, recommend funds and help them develop a financial plan.

What investor education initiatives has your AMC taken?
The decision to set aside 2 bps of management fees for investor education programmes is a significant step -- this will ensure that there is a substantial pie of funds available specifically for awareness initiatives. However, such initiatives also need to encompass distributor education programmes. At our end, we have been consciously building a distinction in our communication and literature between mass retail and high end/institutional investors. We continue to build on the success of our FT Academy (FTA), which was launched in 2005 as a pioneering effort in the industry. While the programme focused mainly on advisors, it has quite a few programmes for investors as well. We are looking to significantly scale up the FTA initiative using technology and will be rolling out a large multi-lingual media campaign focused on investor education across India.

What's the road ahead for your AMC?
Like our investment teams, we have always looked at the business from a long term perspective and the fundamentals. Our long term objective is to build a scalable retail business in India based on our corporate values viz. putting clients first, building relationships, achieving quality results and working with integrity. We believe that the recent regulatory push to develop a long term policy for the asset management industry is a positive step. This should help players like us who are focused on sustainable growth (taking advantage of India's growing savings pool) without the distraction or pressures of short term asset gathering alone. As awareness increases and the institutional segment starts investing in the long term asset space, we will be able to leverage on our comprehensive investment capabilities and cater to the demand. We believe in having a holistic approach that straddles investment excellence, engaged distribution, leveraging technology and meeting client needs through existing/new products. We are looking to refocus our energies to take advantage of the opportunities being thrown up by the regulatory changes. In the coming years, we should be rolling out new initiatives focused on the digital/mobile space. On the product front, we are looking to expand our fixed income/offshore fund range further along with new allocation products and introduce new offerings that leverage our global investment capabilities.

Brief us about your personal investment philosophy.

My focus is on building wealth over the long term without getting distracted by short term fads and systematic investing in funds with established track record has worked well in this regard. Also I am a firm believer in diversification and my overseas stint has helped me in getting exposure across currencies and differentiated asset classes.