Karvy Capital's hedge fund eyes Rs 100 cr by mid-August

NEW DELHI: Karvy Capital, part of financial services group Karvy, today said it expects to attract inflows of about Rs 100 crore from high networth entities for its newly launched hedge fund.

The asset management company has come out with 'Systematic Edge Fund' that would target high networth individuals and select institutions.

"We aim to raise about Rs 100 crore for this fund by mid-August. This fund would be a multi-strategy absolute returns hedge fund and would ensure low volatility," Hrishikesh Parandekar, CEO and Group Head for Broking, Wealth Management and Asset Management, said here.

According to the firm, the fund would invest in futures and options of equity stocks and indices -- "taking both long and short exposures thus reducing dependence on overall market direction".

An open-ended category III Alternative Investment Fund (AIF), the offering is among the first of its kind since capital market regulator Sebi issued guidelines for AIFs last year.

"By diversifying our investments across a large number of small trades across multiple strategies, we are able to contain risk on one hand and achieve diverse sources of returns on the other," Swapnil Pawar, Chief Investment Officer at Karvy Capital said.

In May 2012, Sebi had issued guidelines for AIFs and opened the way for local hedge funds.

Before these regulations, while foreign hedge funds were allowed to invest in domestic equities, domestic firms were not permitted to launch such funds.