Edelweiss plans to launch its Mutual Fund business by the end of June

Edelweiss is planning to launch its mutual fund business by June this year. The financial services company would start with an authorised capital of Rs 25 crore.

“We are waiting for the final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and hopefully it would be operational by the end of this quarter in June,” said Edelweiss Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rashesh Shah.

To begin with the company is planning a slew of new innovative products such as specific-segmented funds targeted at high networth investors (HNIs) and education sector.

“The mutual fund market has become very segmented and we would be focusing on innovative customer-specific products, targeted at the desired section of the population,” he said. The mutual fund portfolio would also include structure funds and concentrated equity funds. According to Shah, the structured products exposure in the portfolio of the HNIs is on the rise.

Anurag Mehrotra, the head of the wealth management at Edelweiss, said that at present structured products constituted not more than 10-15 per cent of portfolio of (HNI) investors.

However, the exposure of structured products would increase by 30 per cent as it could generate returns under wide a range of conditions, he added.

Also, the popularity of alternative investment options such as art and coins is also increasing among HNIs, who are willing to invest over a long period of time.

“We would also have standard products such as liquid, debt and diversified equity funds and, for the first year, we would be launching around 8-10 funds,” Shah said.