ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company plans to go ahead its expansion in the northern urban areas as well as tier II and tier III cities despite the slowdown. The company has already opened 24 new branches since April this year in the north zone, which includes Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
?We aim to continue expanding in these regions and also strengthen our network of channel partners. At present we have about 2,500 channel partners in Punjab region alone and plan to increase it to 3,000 by the end of this fiscal. There are about 12,000 channel partners in the entire northern zone,? said Vikram Kaushal, head- retail sales and distribution of the company.
Till October, the company had Assets Under Management worth Rs 57,289 crore with 1.9 million investors. Vikram further added, ?At this point of time people are investing more in the income funds than the equity funds. We have registered a 25% increase in the inflows over last one year with a growth of 28% in our investor base. We are also organising investor education programs to create awareness about our products and also as a confidence building exercise. We have not seen much redemptions in the last 2-3 months and we are hopeful that the situation will stabilize within the next 3-4 months.?
Pushpinder Singh, senior fund manager, ICICI Prudential AMC added, ?The allocation of funds has changed with more people going in for income funds. On equity front there is huge scope of growth in the capital funds as well. The income funds are giving revenue of about 10-12% at present, which is expected to go up to 12-16% once the market bounces back.?