Birla Sun Life AMC eyes 13-14% rise in AUM

Private sector mutual fund house Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company is expecting a 13-14 percent growth in its average assets under management (AUM) by the end of the current fiscal.
The company, which recorded an average AUM of Rs 1,25,000 crore at the end of the last fiscal 2014-15, is also looking to launch a pension fund product in the current fiscal.
"We closed the fiscal 2014-15 with an average AUM at around Rs 1,25,000 crore which includes Rs 27,000 crore assets in equity alone, showing a growth by 11.5 percent over previous fiscal.
"We do see 13-14 percent growth in AUM during the current fiscal. This growth will come from both the segments which include equity and fixed income," Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company CEO A Balasubramanian told PTI on the sidelines of an event here today.

"More growth is likely to come from the hybrid asset class, comprising a mix of both debt and equity products, during the current fiscal," he said.
Balasubramanian said that the AMC has filed for a pension product with the market regulator Sebi and it is waiting for the approval for the launch.

"In the longer term the potential for growth for the pension products was very high in the country because of large under-penetration in the country," he added.
Currently, three fund houses, out of a total of 45, have products in the pension segment. These include UTI MF, Franklin Templeton and Reliance Mutual Fund, which recently launched a retirement product.

While Franklin is working on another retirement solution, Kotak Mutual Fund is also keen to come up with a retirement product, according to market sources.
Balasubramanian also said that withdrawals by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) from the domestic capital market in recent past is a temporary phenomenon.
"I believe that the FIIs withdrawing from the country's capital market as a temporary phenomenon. We will probably see more FII inflows to come during the second half of the current fiscal," he said.
He further said that RBI may go for a cut in key policy rates by 50 basis points over next six months.

"We do see rate cut to the tune of 50 basis points to happen in the next six months," he said.