The Hindu Business Line : JPMorgan AMC launches India Equity Fund

NEW ENTRANT: Mr Krishnamurthy Vijayan (left), CEO, JP Morgan Asset Management India, with Mr Tony Morgan, COO, South-Asia, JP Asset Management, at a press conference to announce maiden domestic fund JP Morgan India Equity Fund in Mumbai on Thursday. - Paul Noronha

Mumbai April 19 JPMorgan Asset Management India today announced the launch of its maiden domestic fund, JPMorgan India Equity Fund.

The open-ended, equity growth scheme aims to generate income and long-term capital growth from a diversified portfolio of predominantly equity and equity-related securities, including equity derivatives.

The new fund offer (NFO) opens on April 19 and closes on May 18.

The fund will invest 65-100 per cent of its corpus in equity and equity-related instruments and 0-35 per cent in debt and money market instruments.

It will be benchmarked against the BSE-200 index.

The minimum initial application for the fund is Rs 5,000 and minimum additional and SIP application is Rs 1,000.

To tap the Indian market, the fund house will initiate a number of education programmes to distributors over the next year and beyond.

"We are set to grow the Indian business very rapidly, providing Indian investors with the same levels of investment expertise and service that our clients in other parts of the world have come to expect," said Mr Krishnamurthy Vijayan, CEO.

The fund house plans to introduce funds across asset classes and plans to launch a liquid fund in May-June and an ELSS fund later.

"Our target is to reach five per cent of the total equity assets in the industry in the next five years," said Mr Vijayan.

JPMorgan's asset management business manages $6 billion assets in India (as of December 2006), which are invested in a select group of about 54 Indian stocks through five India-dedicated funds.