Mirae Asset gets Sebi nod for MF entry

Mirae Asset, Korea's independent financial services provider, has received the Indian market regulator's approval to start mutual fund operations in India.

Buoyed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India nod, the Asset Management Company (AMC) on Monday announced plans to launch 6-8 equity products and 3-4 fixed income products in the next 16-18 months.

Arindam Ghosh, CEO, Mirae Asset Global Investment Management (India), also did not rule out the possibility of launching a fund investing in global equities, saying the AMC has a slew of international products that can be tweaked for introduction in the Indian market.

Gopal Agarwal will head the equity side and Murthy Nagaraj will be the head of fixed income at Mirae Asset Management. "At present, we have three additional portfolio managers for equity products and two for fixed income. We plan to scale up the investment team to 10 members," said Ghosh.

The AMC will file the draft offer document with Sebi this week for its first product offering, which is likely to be an equity product.

"Initially, we plan to start with mutual fund operations and later enter other financial streams. We are in talks with nationalised banks but other banks that have a larger regional presence," added Ghosh.