Essel MF eyes Rs 10K cr in assets by next March

Essel Mutual Fund, the latest entrant in the market, is aiming assets under management (AUM) of up to Rs 10,000 crore by next March by focusing on liquid funds and aggressive branding, a top official has said.

It has an asset base of nearly Rs 1,600 crore. At the end of December quarter, the figure was Rs 1,146 crore, as per the information available with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

Essel MF is a part of leading private sector financial services firm Essel Finance, which is the umbrella brand for the financial businesses of the USD 10-billion conglomerate Essel Group, founded by Subhash Chandra.

"The company is targeting an AUM of Rs 9,000-10,000 crore by the end of March next year," Essel Mutual Fund Chief Investment Officer Viral Berawala told PTI here.

He said the company would achieve the target by focusing on liquid funds as well retail participation and through aggressive branding.

"We will launch massive advertisement campaign in next two-three months to aware investors about our products," he added.

Essel Finance had completed the acquisition of Peerless Mutual Fund last September. Peerless was re-branded Essel Mutual Fund.

The fund house plans to launch four to five new products in the market in 2018-19. This includes Essel Equity Hybrid Fund, and its new fund offer (NFO) will open from April 9-23.

The scheme could invest between 65-80 per cent of the fund corpus in equities and the remaining in debt and debt-related instruments.