ITI mutual fund expects retail investors’ share in AUM to rise as it looks to tie up with more national level distributors

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ITI Mutual Fund expects the share of retail investors in its total asset under management (AUM) to increase further from the current 30 per cent as the fund house is looking to tie up with more national-level mutual fund distributors.

“The overall retail participation in financial markets has seen a steep increase post the Covid era. The share of retail in our AUM has also seen a steady increase and is currently over 30 per cent of our total AUM. At present, investors panning across the country spread over 14,700 pin codes across 230 cities. We operate out of 27 branches and other satellite locations across the country, marking our presence in over 50 locations Pan-India,” ITI Mutual Fund Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Rajesh Bhatia told businessline.

The fund house’ total AUM stood at ₹9,025 crore as on August 31, 2024.

All set to grow

“Given our presence across the nation and owing to the increased penetration of financial literacy in the country, we expect our retail reach to further increase in the time to come as we set to embark on new milestones,” Bhatia said.

ITI Mutual Fund is aiming to reach an AUM of ₹1 lakh crore in the next five years.

According to Bhatia, the fund house’ focus on the retail segment and further penetration across the country makes it “extremely bullish” on the contribution Systematic Investment Plans (SIP).

“Investors who have leveraged SIPs have witnessed substantial growth in their wealth, highlighting the significant benefits that SIPs offer for enhancing a portfolio. For instance, in July 2024, SIP contributions reached ₹23,332 crore, a remarkable increase from ₹3,334 crores in July 2016 — an approximate seven-fold rise in just eight years,” Bhatia said, adding for ITI Mutual Fund, around 20 per cent of its AUM comprises of assets garnered through the SIP route.

The fund house currently has around 25,000 mutual fund distributors. “We are already involving partners. We have to mine those partners more. We will look at increasing wallet share with existing partners and tie up with new partners — banks and national level players,” the Chief Investment Officer said.

“We aspire to have ₹1 lakh crore AUM in the next five years, backed by the Indian growth story. We are beneficiaries of India’s growth story. A small fund house captures mid and small caps very well. People look at our performance and financialisation of savings get channelled to us and our AUM increases, that is the cycle,” he added.