The Hindu Business Line : Lotus India may increase product offerings

Mumbai June 8 Lotus India Mutual Fund is planning an array of products in the current financial year in both the debt and equity space, said Mr Ajay Bagga, CEO, Lotus India Mutual Fund. With the current assets divided into 60 per cent in liquid funds, 10 per cent in equity and 30 per cent in fixed maturity plans, the fund house is targeting the retail investors to grow its asset base.

"We have launched a 375 day Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP) for retail clients opening from June 8. The one-year product will help the customer to take benefits of long-term capital gains," said Mr Bagga.

The fund house has also filed for a gilt fund and is looking at launching longer-term debt funds. "In the next two-three years, interest rates may soften giving good trading opportunity and higher yields beneficial for longer-term debt, gilt and arbitrage funds," said Mr Bagga.

International fund

As the seven-month-old asset management company grows, it plans to offer diversified fund and thematic fund in the services or infrastructure space in the equity funds.

The asset management company being a joint venture partner with Fullerton Fund Management Group and Sabre Capital Worldwide plans to launch an international fund — a feeder fund investing in Fullerton's funds — to give Indian investors a taste of the global markets.

The fund house has launched a number of FMPs to get high volumes initially. "It is an experiment. We are getting investors through these products initially and we can retain them later through an array of products that we will introduce," said Mr Bagga.

Retail investor

Penetration into the retail investor market is the focus of the fund house. "We have reduced the minimum investment through systematic investment plan with no load to get the retail customers. We are taking the risk to penetrate and take the customer up the ladder," Mr Bagga emphasised.

The asset management company is targeting retail clients and has presence in 52 locations and tie-ups with around 7,700 distributors. "Our target is to reach customers in 100 cities by the end of this year," said Mr Bagga.

The fund house uses the CAMS network across 108 locations for accepting applications and has tie-ups with select Online Channel Partners, which allow sales of Lotus India Mutual Fund products online.

"Retail money accounts for real growth of a fund house and we are concentrating on that," said Mr Bagga.