'Indian MF industry had negligible exposure in Dubai'

The Indian mutual fund industry had negligible exposure in the Dubai financial market to cause any ripples back home, LIC Mutual Fund Chief Executive Officer Sushobhan Sarkar said.

“All the MF schemes that were allowed to invest in overseas securities were Sebi permitted schemes. However, hardly 5-6 schemes had invested overseas,” Sarkar told Business Standard.

Besides, he said the investment was mostly done through ‘feeder fund’ and were not direct investments. A feeder fund invests through another fund called the master fund.

“Dubai financial crisis will have no effect on the Indian financial market,” he underlined.Sarkar was in town to inaugurate the LIC Mutual Fund regional office here.

LIC MF, which has almost Rs 50,000 crore fund under management, has a market share of about six per cent and is growing in excess of 300 per cent, he informed.

The company also has 20,000 Independent Financial Advisors (IFA) to sell its products. It has about 250 customer touch points in India and tie-ups with some financial services companies.