The mutual fund is also re-launching its JM Basic Petrochemical Fund. JM Basic, an aggressive sectoral fund with high risk-return profile, has been giving an annualized return of more than 41 per cent since its inception. Said Mr Vijayan, "Since we have converted the scheme to an open-ended one recently and the scheme has been giving good returns to the investors, we decided to relaunch it."

The Mutual Fund has initiated a brokers' meet and strong press and promotional campaigns for the relaunch. In the wake of the Gujarat earthquake, the MF had postponed the launch of its JM Heritage Fund. According to Mr Vijayan, beginning March 15, the Mutual Fund would be broadbasing the promotional campaigns to include other schemes. "We have products in all risk classes and want to position JM Asset as a friend in the field of risk," he said.

The Mutual Fund also has plans to increase its staff strength from 46 to 75 in a year, out of which 15 personnel would be operational staff. "We are working on strengthening our operational and compliance department," Mr Vijayan said. The Mutual Fund would also be strengthening its investor service centres by adding more people and giving them better communication facilities.

It is also looking at offering direct incentives to its intermediaries by giving brokerage based on retention. According to Mr Vijayan, "Our brokerages are marginally higher and our key thrust area is information-based selling." The Mutual Fund is also working at providing more services to the investors in-house. "Providing services in-house gives us the flexibility to improve the quality and speed of services," headded.