Samir Arora's Helios Capital Get SEBI Approval To Launch Mutual Fund
Helios Mutual Fund will enter the fast-growing mutual fund industry that is currently dominated by a handful of firms.
Helios Capital has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch its mutual fund, Helios Mutual Fund, according to Founder and Fund Manager Samir Arora.
"I am very happy to announce that SEBI has granted approval to Helios Mutual Fund. We need your wishes and support to make this new venture a success," Arora said in a post on social-media platform X on Thursday.
This marks a return to the mutual fund business in India for Arora, who headed the India mutual fund division of Alliance Capital Asset Management India Pvt.
Singapore-based Helios Capital Management Pte. founded in 2005 by Arora and two others, manages India-focused long-short and long only funds and a globally focused long only fund. It has so far been licensed by the regulator to run a Portfolio Management Service.
The mutual fund industry in India is growing rapidly, drawing attention from a number of businesses. Assets under management controlled by the 43 players stood at Rs 46.4 lakh crore at the end of July, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India. Over a third of this is controlled by a handful of players, but the newest entrants are betting on a digital-led strategy to claim a piece of the pie.
One such player, which recently announced its intention to launch an asset management company, is the newly formed joint venture between Jio Financial Services Ltd. and BlackRock Inc.
More Players Are Welcome
The heads of some of the largest mutual funds in India told BQ Prime that they welcome the addition of new players.
"Definitely, we're seeing more players coming in. This will help in expanding the industry base, given the fact that we still have about 15 crore folios in the mutual fund industry," said A Balasubramanian, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Chairman of AMFI .
"In fact, if you divide that by the number of investors, unique investors are only about four crore. Given the fact that we have approximately 125 crore population, versus 3–3.5 crore unique investors in the MF industry, that itself tells you about the current potential that exists," he said.
While, DP Singh, deputy managing director of SBI Mutual Fund, expressed confidence that the dominant players will continue to lead the charge.
"My firm opinion is that the pie will grow further, and this will benefit everybody. We, being the largest, will get the largest share of the pie. I welcome many, many more players."
Singh also said that digital innovations will not remain a differentiating factor for long, because the incumbents will be quick to copy models that make headway.
Helios Mutual Fund's approval comes at a time when the industry may witness a significant change in operations. In a bid to reform the charges levied by mutual funds and provide a more level playing field, SEBI is in the process of overhauling the structure of charges, also called the Total Expense Ratio. This will likely change the offerings put forth by mutual fund players.
Already, the newest entrant, Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, is hoping to benefit from what it calls the late-mover advantage. At the launch in June, the management team of the fund house said there would be no attempt to launch an actively managed large-cap scheme because most fund managers in the industry have consistently failed to beat the benchmark returns.
