Mutual Fund house Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM), with an AUM of R1.5 lakh crore under different segments, is eyeing top slot in offshore managed fund services in India. The company, with around $1 billion under offshore mandate and four offices abroad, is wooing those global fund managers/investors who seek to invest and take part in India?s growth story to the greater level.
?There are number of funds actively involved in Indian market with their base outside India. These funds are only focusing on BSE-listed companies. There are, however, number of companies not listed in BSE and has not been noticed by offshore managed funds , partly because they don?t have presence in India. Investing in those stocks which are not under Sensex purview throw immense opportunities for huge investments,? said Sundeep Sikka, RCAM president and chief executive officer.
In an exclusive interview with FE, he said: ?We believe RCAM can be the right platform for those managed funds outside India to invest in stocks which are out of Sensex. On a real-time basis, we track nearly 500 such stocks thoroughly and we have seen huge potential. There is lot of opportunities in those stocks, particularly that of SMEs outside Sensex.?
?We see the current size of such funds is estimated to be around $15 billion in India and RCAM hope to attract such offshore managed funds which seek to invest in India. We are focusing on those funds/institutional investors as we have better understanding of the Indian stocks and the growth story than these outside managed funds,? Sikka pointed. ?We hope many would look into huge opportunity the country throws for them,? he added.
According to him, ?We have aggressive expansion plans across the country to enhance retail footprint and penetrate in tier-III and IV cities. As part of this expansion plan, RCAM intends to double its branch network to 400 direct branches across various locations in India, increase distribution network by 5,000 and focus on investor education programme. We aim to be present in every district in India by 2015. Our objective is to further penetrate in tier-III and IV cities and increase our market share in these pockets.?
To support the expansion, RCAM will boost its investor-education programme in tier III and IV cities, which will help enhance RCAM?s footprint beyond top 15 cities. Current AUM garnered by RCAM, from beyond top 5 cities is 36%, he added.
Meanwhile, RCAM has launched Portfolio SIP (Systematic Investment Plan). Portfolio SIP is first-of-kind comprehensive investment facility that will provide an opportunity for retail customers to invest systematically in multiple RMF schemes. Customers of RCAM can choose and invest in desired set of RMF schemes at their convenient frequency (monthly and quarterly). Investors can choose to invest across all the asset classes ? equity, debt or gold.
Portfolio SIP empowers customers to build diversified portfolio across asset classes in longer period of time with smaller investment at regular intervals. Through this mode, investors can enter into disciplined approach which not only eliminates the risk of timing the market but also reduces the risk of market volatility and at the same time leverage the benefit of investing in multiple schemes with single payment.
RCAM investors can start investing in multiple schemes with a minimum in Portfolio SIP is Rs 6,000. RCAM intend to raise 1 lakh SIP?s in next 6 months and Rs 1,000 crore in first year.