In an annual review on fund families, we spoke to mutual fund honchos to get their views on some of the pressing issues facing the industry. This is what Saurabh nanavati, the CEO and MD of Religare Invesco Asset Management Company had to say:
What factors would increase the appetite for investing in mutual funds beyond the top 15 cities?
Investor education and awareness would be the biggest factor. The retail investors in cities beyond top 15 cities have virtually a 100 per cent exposure to Bank FDs, Real Estate and Gold and a small piece in Insurance. Mutual funds have a big opportunity, as the awareness increases in these cities and investors understand the benefits of liquidity, transparency and expert fund management. Some help from Regulators and Government to explain to retail investors on how well regulated and safe the mutual fund industry is, as compared to recent blow-ups in the Chit Fund Industry and Commodities etc. too will go a long way for the Mutual Fund industry.
Have the direct plans seen greater retail participation?
As compared with the Institutional segment, retail participation in direct plans has grown nominally since its introduction. Retail investors are yet dependant on their advisors for investment advice.
What investor education initiatives has your AMC taken?
We recognize the importance of financial literacy & investor empowerment through education and have adopted multiple approaches to educate investors - on-ground events, educational guides, digital and print media campaigns. We have increased our presence in the Social media space too. For the calendar year, the AMC has conducted 63 investor camps across 51 cities in the country. We recently launched the “Investing and Savings Guide” which offers investors an overview of savings and investments. On our website, we have a knowledge section dedicated to investor education, and shortly we will be launching our print campaign.
What's the road ahead for your AMC?
Post the JV with Invesco, we are in the process of positioning the JV as a global AMC with distributors and investors. Very soon we will be launching feeder funds into global funds of Invesco for Indian retail investors, as also launching Indian Fixed Income and Equity strategies on global platforms for Invesco's global clients and distributors. Our core focus on continuously improving fund performance and reducing risk remains. We also continue to expand in tier 2 cities and now have our own sales presence in over 60 cities.
Brief us about your personal investment philosophy?
My personal Investment philosophy is fairly simple -- my biggest investment is my job / profession and I need to spend 90 per cent of my time towards enhancing my skills there. I should not spend more than 10 per cent of my time on my Investments. The investment strategy therefore needs to be simple and easy to monitor. I often see people spending 50-80 per cent of their time only monitoring their investments and worry about it.
I invest in 2 asset classes - debt and real estate. I stopped investing in Equity and Equity Mutual Funds for the last 7 years to avoid any conflicts of interest. The results have been satisfying and more importantly I am at peace. Your investments need to give you security and peace of mind and should not become a source of worry.
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