Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital and Japanese financial services major Nissay have joined hands to launch two mutual fund products for the Japanese retail investors.

The two funds –Short Term Indian Bond Fund and India Equity Selection Fund — will enable Japanese retail investors to participate in the India growth story.

They have been jointly launched by Nissay Asset Management, a part of Nippon Life Insurance (NLI) Group and Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM), which is part of Reliance Capital.

Reliance Capital and NLI group (also called as Nissay) also announced a strategic business alliance wherein the later will participate in the ‘Reliance Bank’, which will be set up under the appropriate category of licence that would be issued by the RBI.

These announcements — which coincided with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first official visit to Japan - will actively further expand the collaboration between Reliance Group and NLI Group and contribute towards strengthening the relations between India and Japan, said Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, Group Managing Director, Reliance Group. .

Yoshinobu Tsutsui, President, Nippon Life Insurance said Reliance Capital is planning to set up its own bank which will cater to individual customers and small and medium enterprises all over India.

“NLI is also participating in this bank project as part of strategic business alliance with a view to improve the financial infrastructure and contribute towards economic growth of India”, Tsutsui said.

Meanwhile, Sundeep Sikka, CEO, RCAM said the launch of the two funds is part of the larger initiative to strengthen the partnership between the two corporations and two countries.

The India Equity Selection Fund will directly invest in Indian equity markets to capture the long-term growth prospects of the Indian economy.

The fund’s overall strategy will mirror one of RCAM’s equity fund schemes with a long and successful track record. This will be a well diversified portfolio benchmarked to the BSE 100.

The short-term Indian Bond Fund will largely invest directly in permitted Indian government securities and local currency Indian corporate bonds. This fund also has the capability to invest upto a limit (20 per cent) in offshore foreign currency bonds of large Indian issuers. The fund can purchase schemes with duration of 5 years.

Both these funds will be managed by Nissay Asset Management Corp, Japan, while RCAM will be the investment advisor to the funds.

These two funds come close on the heels on RCAM’s launch of first Japanese Equity fund in the Indian mutual fund industry. Reliance Japan Equity Fund allows Indian investors to invest in Global Japanese companies.

Currently, Nippon Life Insurance — 5th largest private life insurer in the world—has 26 per cent stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) and Reliance Life Insurance Company, both part of Reliance Capital.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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