Birla Sun Life MF to step up equity exposure, to expand reach

 Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund will focus on increasing its equity segment in the overall portfolio along with building up duration products in the debt segment this fiscal, a top company official has said.

He further said the company also plans to expand its reach through increasing branch network and distributors."Our contribution on equity will be stepped up and our focus on building duration product is also very high, mainly on account of falling interest rates, which will have positive impact for investors... Also, we have an increased focus on equity with three-four years of time horizon," company's Chief Executive A Balasubramanian told PTI here.

He also said the company plans to increase its investor base by increasing branch network along with the addition of distributors."We operate out of 88 branches...We are going to add another 20-25 branches this fiscal... We have also identified potential markets which will be our focus going ahead," he said.

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund had an average assets under management of around Rs 77,047 crore as of FY'13.

As per the company, around 18 % of the total AUM (assets under management) is contributed by equities with rest coming from debt products.

Talking about the growth of mutual fund industry in general, Balasubramanian said that the industry would see sound growth in this fiscal."Fixed market products, which have witnessed good growth in the last 2-3 years, will continue to see growth this fiscal. We expect that duration funds, especially funds like dynamic bond funds will see more inflows in the current fiscal," he said adding that the fund house is positive on equities for next three years.

Talking on the PMS (portfolio management service) business of the fund house, he said the company was planning to ramp up this segment, which is around Rs 700 crore as of now.

Balasubramanian also added it would be the fund house endeavour to increase retail investors' base.

Referring to sectors, which are likely to do good in the current fiscal, he said the fund house is positive on sectors like pharma, banking, automobile along with technology.