What are some of the key initiatives that you have undertaken in these eight months as a CEO?
The journey over the last eight months has been exceptionally exciting for Edelweiss AMC. We have used this period to build a solid foundation by getting the basics right – aligning our product suite and investment processes post acquisition of schemes of JP Morgan Mutual Fund, strengthening our talent in investments and sales and connecting with our key advisors to tell them about what our journey will be like. One of the initiatives that I am most excited about has been the launch of Edelweiss Insights – a unique knowledge building initiative for our partners. Under Insights, we share interesting research reports, articles on sectors, markets, macro-economic trends and on topics that are beyond equity and debt markets – prepared by Edelweiss Group entities. We have also conducted two successful Insights conferences for our partners where we have shared perspective on some unique topics like real estate and asset reconstruction by calling speakers from Edelweiss’s vast pool of experts.
How many distributors work with Edelweiss? How do you plan to expand your distribution force?
Currently we have around 4,000 IFA partners working with us and we are committed to increase this number gradually. We believe in building long-term partnerships with distributors around both business and knowledge. We have a significant presence and we are growing it in the organized distribution space that will be equally important for our growth in coming years.
Today most distributors recommend schemes that come with a track record. How do you plan to win their confidence?
Investment management is a business of trust and long-term partnership. Our endeavour is to deliver true to label products that have well defined investment mandates and meet them. On performance, being number one has never been our objective; rather delivering consistently good performance is the focus. Post the acquisition of JPMorgan schemes, our key schemes are now delivering consistently and some of our older schemes have a very good long term track record, particularly our Edelweiss Mid and Small Cap Fund. In addition, performance is an outcome, process is the input and we are very focused on the quality of investment team and communication of investment process. We have been focussing on communicating in a simple way our investment process to our partners.
How are you planning to increase your investor base especially retail investor base?
We do not worry about this, because we believe the opportunity in India has just begun and there is room for all of us to grow as the entire market expands. Mutual fund penetration / GDP is so small compared to global markets, that it is about expanding the pie rather than dividing it. We also believe a younger AMC has the opportunity to innovate and differentiate on products, communication and customer service, and when you deliver a quality experience to advisors and investors, you will do well, regardless of size and competition.
What is your roadmap for Edelweiss MF for 2018? What is the AUM target for your mutual fund business?
We just crossed Rs.10,000 crores in AMC assets in November and aim to hit Rs.25,000 crore by March 2019. Our longer term aspirations for this business of course are much larger. More importantly, while achieving numbers, we also aim to build a quality business – a limited set of products delivering consistent performance, solid partnerships with our advisors and a high quality and motivated team. These are as important planks as the AUM numbers we achieve.
