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So, I did further research to understand more about ITI Mutual Fund's details - the AMC, sponsor/promoter and the investment philosophy the fund management team would follow.

The core focus of this fund house is to deliver high-quality investment solutions to investors with integrity and establish long-term relationship with them. ITI Mutual Fund is promoted by the Investment Trust of India Ltd. that has over 3000 employees across 190 branches in India.

ITI Asset Management Limited is a subsidiary of The Investment Trust of India (ITI) that was incorporated in 1991. The Investment Trust of India Limited, one of the largest Financial Services conglomerates, offers a range of products and services from Lending, Equities and Derivatives trading, Equity Research, Commodities Trading, Portfolio Management Services, Distribution of Mutual Funds, IPO & Insurance products, and Investment Banking Services.

The key sponsors of ITI Mutual Fund are ITI and Fortune Credit Capital Limited. The stake of the AMC is in a ratio of 60% held by ITI and 40% held by Fortune Credit Capital Limited. ITI Asset Management company's principal activity is to act as an Investment Manager for the proposed Mutual Fund business. The Investment Management Agreement was executed between ITI Mutual Fund Trustee Private Limited and ITIAML on April 7, 2017.

Incidentally, ITI Group is the promoter of the first private sector fund house Pioneer ITI Mutual Fund, that was taken over by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund in 2002. The entity was later bought over by Fortune Financial Services.

Mr Sudhir Valia is the lead promoter, a mentor and one of the shareholders of ITI Group and owns a majority stake in Fortune Financial Fortune Credit Capital Limited. He is the Associate Director of the ITI Mutual Fund Trustee Pvt. Ltd.

Mr Valia has been a Director of Sun Pharmaceuticals since its inception and was instrumental in the excellent growth and profitability of the company over the last two decades. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with more than three decades of experience in taxation and finance.

His accolades include, 'CFO of the Year' in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Sectors for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012) by the CNBC TV18. And has also been awarded the Adivasi Sevak Puraskar (2008-09) by the Government of Maharashtra.

The Fund Management Team of ITI Mutual Fund:

Mr George Heber Joseph is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at ITI Mutual Fund. He holds a bachelor's degree in English language & Literature (BA) and Commerce (BCom). Mr George is also a qualified member of associate member of Chartered Accountants of India and an associate member of Cost and Management Accountants of India. He has over 16 years of work experience in Fund Management, Equity Research, and Capital Markets.

Mr Pradeep Gokhale joined ITI Asset Management Ltd as the Senior Fund Manager. He has a bachelor's degree in Commerce (BCom), is a Chartered Accountant and CFA. He has over 23 years of experience in Fund Management, Equity Research, Credit Evaluation & ratings.

Mr Milan Mody joined ITI Asset Management Ltd as the Fund Manager - Fixed Income. He has an MBA in Finance from MET Institute, Mumbai and work experience of more than 16 years in Fund Management and Dealing in the Fixed Income Market.

Mr Vikas Rathie is the last key personnel to join the asset management company as the National Head of Sales & Distribution of ITI Asset Management Ltd. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Institute of Management Technology of Ghaziabad and a B.E. in Computer Science from S.G.S. Institute of Technology & Science, Indore.

Philosophy:
ITI Mutual fund is of the philosophy that they will offer thoughtful and investor-centric investment solutions through robust investment management and research expertise. It has access to some of the finest minds in the Investment Management, Equity Research, and Credit Research space that enables the fund house to run a unique investment philosophy and deploy robust investment strategies that can stand the test of time.

As reported by Business Standard, 'The fund house's strategy would include leveraging the ITI group's three million customer base, which are well-aware of the ITI brand. And Mr Joseph quoted, "We would direct these clients to distributors and advisers to understand our investment philosophy,"

The fund house seeks to differentiate itself in the 41-player MF industry by focusing on quality in both its equity and debt portfolios.'

The fund house will engage the existing client base of the parent company to add to the mutual fund business with the help of distributors. Distributors and advisers will play a key role in explaining the fund house's investment philosophy. It sees the capital market regulator's commission reforms as a welcome step for it has opened doors for smaller fund houses like ITI Mutual Fund to be an equal player with respect to the big fund houses.

Road ahead...

In terms of its expansion plans (as reported), the fund house will launch two more funds- arbitrage fund and ELSS followed by some asset allocation funds In addition to this, it will work closely with distributors to have them in the top 30 cities, which accounts for a majority of assets under management in the mutual fund industry to expand within the industry.

But PersonalFN is of the view that there are no previous schemes to evaluate the robustness of the investment system and processes followed at ITI Mutual Fund. It would be sensible to first assess the performance of the funds as well as the fund house for a couple of years before investing in any scheme offered by ITI Mutual Fund.

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