Bajaj Finserv enters India’s highly competitive mutual fund arena

Diversified financial services group Bajaj Finserv on Tuesday announced the launch of its mutual fund business under Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund.

Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund will soon launch products across fixed income, hybrid, and equity categories to meet the needs of diverse investor profiles ranging from retail and HNIs to institutions. 

To begin, the company will launch a set of fixed income, liquid, overnight and money market products to cater to the institutional segment and company treasuries.

The fund house had filed its first seven schemes with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)—namely, liquid fund, money market fund, overnight fund, arbitrage fund, large and mid-cap fund, balanced advantage fund and flexi cap fund.

It will start rolling out these products within the next 30 days, starting with fixed income products.

Bajaj Finserv received the final registration from the Sebi to commence its mutual fund operations under Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, with Bajaj Finserv Asset Management Ltd (BFAML) as the investment manager in March 2023.

Announcing the launch, Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director at Bajaj Finserv, said the group is committed to being a full-stack financial solutions provider to meet India’s growing needs.

“The launch of asset management helps diversify our retail franchise and leverage Bajaj Finserv companies’ combined strength in financial services across a much larger customer base,” he said.

“Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund will deploy technology at scale to empower teams, create platforms for distributors, simplify investments and build long-term sustainable value for customers. We believe the asset management business positions Bajaj Finserv for an exciting new chapter of growth,” he added.

The mutual fund has named Ganesh Mohan as the Chief Executive Officer of Bajaj Finserv Asset Management Company.

The future product road map will be determined by the investment team based on market opportunities and the possibilities of generating sustainable alpha, as opposed to large market size categories, said Mohan.

The company’s investments team will be led by Nimesh Chandan, Chief Investment Officer, a veteran with 22 years of experience in investing in Indian capital markets.

Incidentally, Bajaj Finserv serves 100 million customers across 4,500 locations through a combination of digital and physical reach.

Bajaj Finserv is one of India’s leading promoters of financial services with consolidated total income of Rs 82,072 crore in FY23.

It holds 52.49 per cent stake in Bajaj Finance, a listed non-bank with the strategy and structure of a bank. It holds 74 per cent stake each in Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company.

Subsidiaries of Bajaj Finance include Bajaj Housing Finance, offering a range of housing finance solutions, and Bajaj Financial Securities, an all-in-one digital platform combining demat, broking and margin trade financing for retail and HNI clients on a predominantly B2C platform.

Bajaj Finserv holds an 80.13 per cent stake in Bajaj Finserv Direct, a diversified financial services and e-commerce open architecture marketplace for loans, cards, insurance, investments, payments, and lifestyle products.

Bajaj Finserv’s wholly-owned subsidiaries include Bajaj Finserv Health, Bajaj Finserv Ventures, Bajaj Finserv Asset Management, and Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund Trustee.