Sahara MF aims to join top five, double investor base

NEW DELHI: With a medium term target of joining the league of five largest fund houses in the country, Sahara Mutual Fund expects to double its customer base in less than a year.

The company would look at leveraging from the vast customer base and extensive distribution network of Subrata Roy-led Sahara group's para banking business, Sahara Mutual Fund Chief Executive Officer N K Garg told the media.

"The para-banking business of Sahara Group has about four per cent of total population of the country as its clients and this provides a huge opportunity for us to expand our reach," Garg said.

When asked whether Sahara Mutual Fund would look at leveraging from Sahara India Finance's customer and agents base, Garg said that the company would certainly look at tapping the huge depositors base and distribution network of the group's para-banking business.

There could be a significant synergy between the various businesses of the group such as insurance, para-banking and mutual fund, he said.

"We aim to be among the top five fund houses in the country in the medium term," he said, adding that the focus would, however, be on the performance of the funds as well as a balance between risk and returns for the investors.

"We are also looking to double our current investor base by the end of this year," Garg said, adding that currently it has an investor base of around one lakh. The fund house already has a number of schemes figuring among the best performing funds across the world.