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Investors Eyeing Growing Indian Mutual Fund Sector
DUBAI - The global recession is keeping financial markets worlwide on the edge, but that doesn’t seem to faze Indian fund companies and banks offering a slew of fund options to eager NRIs looking to park and grow their money in their home country.
At the opening on Friday of the 9th ‘Khaleej Times Indian Banking and Mutual Fund Annual Seminar,’ a mid-morning crowd of more than 100 non-resident Indians were in consultation with mutual fund experts, even before the official opening of the event, and many were expecting to firm up their investment plans.
Around noontime, an entire room set up for a marathon of seminars on various investment options, were nearly filled.
This year, the annual two-day event at Dhow Palace Hotel in Bur Dubai is expected to draw about 1,200 potential investors, slightly higher from last year’s total visitors. It doesn’t seem quite an impressive tally, but for the first time since the yearly event was started by Khaleej Times and Publicitas Mediascope, the event is open to all nationalities.
“The mutual fund market is a niche market, we are attracting a select group, those high networth NRIs, professionals and businessmen. At the same time, there is a demand not just from the participating companies here, but from other foreigners as well, to have mutual fund facilities in India be available to them. These people can now buy through these instruments through a dollar fund,” said Manish Juyal, general manager at Publicitas Mediascope.
There are 12 select banks and mutual fund companies participating this year, namely YES Bank, Kotak Mutual Fund, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, Barjeel Geojit Securities, BankMuscat Asset Management, State Bank of India, UTI International Ltd., LTC International, and Superfund Financial (Middle East) Ltd.
India, which is one of few countries that are holding up very well against the global economic downturn, is getting a lot of attention from investors.
It posted a first quarter gross domestic product or GDP of 6.1 per cent, and surged faster at 7.9 per cent in the second quarter, driven by the strong performance across industry sectors.
“The Indian economy is very strong, and many Indian residents in the UAE, want to participate in its growth. Many of these potential investors, want to understand better how they can also benefit from their home country’s growth, which is why the number of participants in our event is increasing by an average of 10 per cent annually,” said Juyal.
“In bringing this platform for them yearly, that ensures the sustained growth of the banking and mutual fund sector in India, while the investors are finding what they believe to be instruments that would give them good returns.”
In 2010, the event organisers may decide to hold a separate event in Dubai, and in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, to accommodate the growing NRI investor base.
Juyal said the banking and mutual fund meet is also eyeing to bring the event next year to Oman and Bahrain, targeting both NRIs and other foreign investors.
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