Kotak MF wants to build investor wealth SIP by SIP

Kotak Mutual Fund today said it would focus on systemic investment plan (SIP) route to attract more retail investors.
"The value of Kotak MF's SIP has gone up to Rs 50 crore now from Rs 20 crore a year ago, showing an increase of 150 per cent. Hence, we are focusing on SIP to bring in more and more retail investors to the company's fold," Kotak MF Managing Director Nilesh Shah told reporters here.
The private MF house has 7 lakh retail folios under SIP at present. SIP is a financial planning tool offered by MFs to help investors put in small amounts in periodic instalments in their equity, debt and other products.

In case, the government provides tax break to retirement funds too during the forthcoming Budget on the lines of National Pension System (NPS), the company would launch a scheme in this segment in future, he said.
In the last Budget, the government offered an additional tax benefit of Rs 50,000 per year for investment in NPS under Section 80CCD (1B), which is over and above Rs 1.5 lakh under section 80C. For this additional tax benefit, NPS has caught the attention of many investors.
"We've demanded the same facility for retirement fund from the Government in the forthcoming Budget. If it happens, we plan to launch a balanced retirement fund which will invest in both, equities and debt, in future."

The fund house's average assets under management crossed Rs 55,000 crore as on December 31, helping it to occupy eighth rank among MF players based on AAUM.
Kotak MF has already applied to Sebi for launching an arbitrage fund. It is apart from a number of fixed maturity plans for which it has applied to the regulator for approval.
"We have already filed for an arbitrage fund before Sebi and we will launch it once we get the approval," Shah said.