The draft prospectus of a number of schemes to be launched is ready and have also been approved by the trustees. To start with, the mutual fund would be offering plain vanilla products. "Initially, the schemes would not be marketed aggressively and a large chunk of investments in the scheme would be made by KJMC Group & its Associates. The idea is to first show performance and then access the mass market," Mr Jain said.

Recently, Principal Capital Market Ltd, an Indian securities firm, acquired a 37.5 per cent stake in the asset management arm of the mutual fund.

Earlier, the group had given a mandate to the consultant, Pricewaterhouse Coopers to scout for a foreign partner. The group had also held talks with a number of foreign mutual funds for forming a joint venture but a consensus on issues like price etc could not be reached.

Out of the list of sixty mutual funds contacted, some wanted to enter on their own, some were hesitant because of the cut-throat competition and market fluctuations, while some wanted a majority stake, he said and added that the group was not willing to give a majority stake to any partner. "At present, we would go ahead with the launch. After showing performance and establishing the brand, we might consider giving a stake to the foreign partner," said Mr Jain. KJMC Financial Services had received registration for sponsoring KJMC Mutual Fund from Sebi a couple of months ago. The KJMC group has a strong network of sub-brokers (1,500), already marketing products of other mutual funds, which would be used later to market the schemes of KJMC Asset Management, he added.

KJMC group provides merchant banking service through KJMC Global Market (India) Ltd, stock broking services through KJMC Capital Market services and financial services through a non-banking finance company (NBFC), KJMC Financial Service.