DSP BlackRock eyes quant funds

DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, a leading asset management company in India, aims to bring ETFs (exchange traded funds) and Scientific Active Business to India, a top company executive said on Thursday.

Talking to Deccan Herald, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Executive Vice President (Head, Equities and Corporate Strategy) Anup Maheshwari said, “We are always looking at opportunities like ETF which is a very large business for BlackRock globally. We have evaluated for the last couple of years. We have still not found it to be the rightful ecosystem to launch. It is something on our radar. Certainly we want to do ETFs.”

Maheshwari added, “Scientific Active Business, which is quant-based investing, is a big business for BlackRock globally. It is not there in India today. That is something we will explore at some point in future.”

Without giving a time-frame, Maheshwari said, “There are all in conceptual stages and nothing concrete has been decided. We want to do certain business, but we need to bring in the right people. These are all part of future plans.”

Has Rs 37K cr in AUM

The company launched the alternative investment fund (AIF) in May 2014. DSP BlackRock has assets under management (AUMs) of Rs 37,000 crore compared with the total AUM of Rs 13 lakh crore for the entire mutual fund industry.

Maheshwari explains, “These are large businesses globally and there is no reason why they won't be large in India at some point as investors are getting sophisticated. In India, we did not have institutional investors in equity, since in the past pension funds were not allowed to invest. People didn’t do much in equities at an institutional level. Now that they have started investing in equities and the government is encouraging them to invest in equity, these products will start developing.”