UTI Mutual Fund to up financial advisors' count by 25% in UP

Taking bullish stance on future growth prospects of domestic economy in near term, UTI Mutual Fund today said it was looking at increasing its financial advisors count by almost 25% in Uttar Pradesh.

Currently, the company has a network of about 3,000 financial advisors to sell its products.

"Taking clues from moderating inflation and prospects of interest rate cuts next year, we are bullish on economy and corporate earnings. To keep pace with higher growth, we could ramp up our financial advisors' count by 20-25% in the next three years," UTI Mutual Fund group president (sales and marketing) Suraj Kaeley told Business Standard here.

He noted lowering of interest rates by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would boost economic activities and thus spur growth.

"Analysts have predicted corporate earnings of 15-17% in near future," he added.

Meanwhile, the company today announced the launch of UTI Focussed Equity Fund - Series II, which would be open for subscription on December 4 and close on December 18, 2014.

He said there was no formal target, but the company would be eyeing to mop up Rs 500 crore with this new close ended equity scheme. UTI Focussed Equity Fund - Series I, launched in August 2014, had mopped up Rs 500 crore.

"Almost 56% of investment in Series I Fund had come from tier II towns," he informed. UP had contributed nearly Rs 50 crore of this corpus.

On the financial inclusion scheme 'Jan Dhan Yojana' launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kaeley observed schemes that props up formal savings would help financial markets.

"With this scheme, more people are coming under the formal banking network and we remain bullish," he underlined.