Reliance MF looking for overseas distribution partner

Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Mutual Fund today said it is looking for a foreign partner to sell its mutual fund products in the overseas markets.

"We are looking at partnering a global firm which will help us in distributing our products overseas," Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd CEO Sundeep Sikka told PTI.

India's largest asset management company Reliance MF has presence in five overseas locations -- Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, Malaysia and the UK.

At the end of June quarter, the fund house managed average assets worth over Rs 1.01 lakh crore and had an investor base of 7.3 million.

Sikka further said that Reliance MF is in talks with various foreign individuals for investment, but did not divulge the names.

In order to promote the portfolio investment route, the government in August allowed QFIs -- individual, group or association -- to invest up to $13 billion (about Rs 63,715 crore) in equity and debt schemes of mutual funds.

"We are in advanced stages of talks with a few QFIs and are hopeful of bringing them in shortly," Sikka added.

He added that Reliance MF will continue to focus on retail customers for expansion and retail debt segment would be its focus area.

"We are planning to come out with innovative products for retail customers which would be simple. We want to cash in on the huge untapped potential that the retail segment has," he said.

The company is also planning to come out with funds which will invest in the global equities. The company has already filed an offer document with Sebi to launch Reliance Indonesia Opportunities Fund, which seeks to invest predominantly in equity and equity related instruments of Indonesian and Indian markets.

"We are looking at frontier and developed markets as well for opportunities," Sikka said.

He, however, added that it is only in the planning stage and would need longer term plan of the company to allow Indian investors opportunity to invest in equities of frontier economies like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Africa.

Reliance MF offers 22 equity scheme, 12 debt schemes and two ETFs.