ArthVeda Capital to launch Smart Alpha indices

MUMBAI: ArthVeda Capital today announced it will launch Smart Alpha indices for global investors in the US and other international markets.

Smart Alpha is a rules-based, value investing framework that produces a portfolio of low risk, high quality stocks which are available at a discount to intrinsic value.

"The 8 indices are being launched in US and international developed markets such as Europe, UK and Japan. These markets together form the major portion of the USD 3 trillion Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry," the company said in a statement.

ArthVeda Capital, the capital markets arm of asset management firm ArthVeda Fund Management Company, expects to target at least 3-5 ETF products launched on these indices which would cumulatively garner anywhere between USD 1-3 billion eventually, it said.

"The major disadvantage of conventional indexes is they are market-cap weighted, they tend to over-allocate to overvalued stocks and under-allocate to undervalued stocks," ArthVeda Capital Chief Investment Officer Vikas Gupta said.

"We are already talking to a number of leading ETF issuers as well as issuers of UITs and closed-ended mutual funds. There is interest from the managed accounts side as well. On the derivatives side, structured notes, options and futures are also under discussion," Gupta added.