Kotak Mutual charts out 3-pronged growth plan

Kotak Mutual Fund has outlined a three-pronged growth strategy that hinges on product innovation, geographical expansion and an increased retail base to figure among the top five in the industry.

Ajay Bagga, chief executive officer, said the company had lined up two new products "" a fund of funds and an opportunity fund "" as part of its products innovation plan.

A third product, portfolio management service (PMS), is also in the pipeline.

Kotak Mutual Fund had been considering PMS for some time now. Prior to that, it decided against going for PMS as a similar scheme was run by Kotak Securities, a sister organisation.

It has been talking about entering into PMS service for at least six months now.

Bagga said the company has received the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approval for the launch of the opportunity scheme while the launch of the fund of funds was awaiting the market regulator's nod.

"The company has filed application for the fund of funds with Sebi. The approval is expected to be cleared in a fortnight," he added.

According to the draft filed with Sebi, the fund of funds will invest 25 per cent of its corpus in four funds each, one of them will be a Kotak fund.

Talking on expansion of the geographical reach, Bagga said the company targeted to have a net work of 30 branches, from the existing 19, in next one-and-a-half year.

The company would also aim at increasing retail customer base of 1.60 lakh to "as much as possible." For that, the company intended to tie up with more distributors.

It now works with 2,500 distributors. There are 15,000 distributors certified by the Association of Mutual Funds in India.