Tata Pension Management eyeing break even in 2025-26, says CEO Kurian Jose
Tata Pension Management, a recent entrant in pension fund management space, is looking to break-even in 2025-26, its Chief Executive Officer Kurian Jose has said.
This private pension fund manager (PFM), which commenced its operations in August 2022, is eyeing assets under management (AUM) of ₹5,000 crore as of end March 2025 and would be in a position to achieve break even when the AUM reaches about ₹ 10,000 crore (as per our business plan), Jose told businessline in an interview.
Tata Pension Management, which in the last one year was the second fastest growing PFM, is now aiming to emerge as “fund manager of choice to everybody” and try to become the fastest growing as well, he said.
Asked if the AUM target of ₹5,000 crore was “ambitious”, he said “When we set the ₹1,000 crore target for the first year, when we were at ₹ 100 crore, it was ambitious. I mean if you don’t set ambitious targets….we don’t want to grow slowly. So I think targets are meant to be ambitious and it’s up to the team to kind of figure out how to reach it. We have a strategy on how to reach it and we have presented it to the Board”.
In the first full year of operations in 2023-24, Tata Pension closed with an AUM of ₹833 crore and is currently managing pension assets (NPS monies) worth ₹ 1,200 crore.
Jose asserted that he does not see Tata Pension Management —owned by Tata Asset Management —as a “late entrant” in the pension fund management space and expressed confidence that the “trust” enjoyed by the Tata Group would help it scale its business to newer heights in the coming years.
Mission
“Being part of the Tata group, we are well known for our strong adherence to highest standards of ethics and fairness in the way we operate. Our focus remains steadfast on our mission to become a premier Pension Fund Manager, guided by Tata values, and to facilitate wealth creation for our subscribers”, he said.
As on date, Tata Pension Management has about 35,000 NPS subscribers as its customer and the company is now aiming to increase its customer base to 1.25 lakh by end March 2025, Jose added.
Tata Pension Management has given 38 per cent annual return on the NPS monies parked under Equity Scheme. As of May 3, 2024, Tata Pension delivered 1-year return of 38.39 percent in Scheme E- Tier 1; 6.84 percent in Scheme – C – Tier 1 and 6.96 percent in Scheme – G – Tier 1. “ I don’t think we can sustain this 38 percent return year on year. I don’t think that’s possible. The advantage that NPS has over mutual funds or other investment products is that our expense ratio is extremely low vis-a-vis mutual funds. However here (NPS) in equity we can invest only in top 200 stocks”, he added.
Currently, there are eleven pension fund managers in the National Pension System (NPS) ecosystem and they together managed assets worth ₹ 11.75 crore as of mid-April this year. NPS assets in India are growing at frenetic pace of 25-30 percent CAGR in the recent decade.