ITI Mutual Fund, which is set to launch in April with two funds, has chalked out a strategy to expand business and turn profitable.

A combination of product and network expansion, incentivising distributors and focussed investment strategy across its funds could help the mutual fund take a slot among the top 10 players in terms of profit over the next 10 years.

“In 10 years we want to be within the top 10 mutual funds in the country in terms of profits,” said George Heber Joseph, CEO and CIO of ITI Mutual Fund.

ITI Asset Management is a part of Sun Pharma director Sudhir Valia-backed Investment Trust of India group, which is also in the business of asset based lending, institutional & retail broking, investment banking, insurance broking, debt securities and distressed assets advisory.

Incidentally ITI was the promoter of the first private sector mutual fund — Pioneer ITI Mutual Fund, which was later taken over by Franklin Templeton India in 2002. The entity was later bought over by Fortune Financial Services.

“We got a licence in May 2018. We are launching two products in April — a liquid fund and a multicap fund. ELSS and arbitrage will follow this. Then we will file for more products in the asset allocation category,” said Joseph.

The mutual fund plans to have distributors in the top 30 cities, which account for majority of assets under management in the mutual fund industry.

“We will incentivise the distributors and work with them closely. In B30 (beyond 30) markets we will mostly look at digital acquisition at this point of time. In terms of infrastructure we will have 30 offices in the top 30 cities in the first year itself,” said Joseph.

He added that the promoters could put in additional capital to facilitate the growth of the business in the early stages, having chipped in with Rs 80 crore already.

Sebi has capped the expense ratio at 2.25 per cent in case of equity-oriented schemes for assets under management up to Rs 500 crore.