US firm Morningstar Inc will expand its investment research coverage to Indian funds by early next year and hopes to hire 10-20 staff by March, a senior executive said on Monday.
Morningstar, founded by its chairman and chief executive Joe Mansueto in his Chicago apartment in 1984, has made a name for itself by rating mutual funds, hedge funds and stocks and is popular for its star system of rating fund performance.
"India represents a very important investment area worldwide. So we need to be here not only to serve the Indian market but for the global investment community," Jaideep Vivekanand, director of business development for India at Morningstar Asia Ltd, said.
A stock market slide has slowed investor flows into equity funds in India in the past two months, but Morningstar that has a market value of $3.3 billion is unperturbed.
"We feel now is the time to be in here and start establishing our brand," Vivekanand told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office in the south Indian city of Chennai.
Assets of the Indian fund industry has jumped three and a half times to $137 billion in three years, a growth that has attracted global players such as South Korea's Mirae Asset, American International Group and JP Morgan.
UBS and Japan's Shinsei Bank are among more than 20 players waiting in the wings to join the 33-member industry, forecast to manage about $520 billion by 2015 and offering opportunities for investment and advisory services.
Vivekanand said Morningstar was in the process of putting together a team in Mumbai, India's financial hub, and hopes to appoint a head for the team by the end of July.
The firm expects to hire 10-20 staff by March 2009, he said.
Morningstar also aims to launch advisory services on Indian funds. It had taken over as investment consultant for Singapore's state pension fund in early 2008, replacing consulting, outsourcing and investment services firm Mercer.
"Over time we will bring in further services like investment consulting and more fund research and database will expand to stocks," said Vivekanand, who has been in charge of the India plan for about a year and a half. Morningstar procured data from mutual fund tracking firm ICRA Online Ltd for its Indian operations and had held talks with other research firms for a possible acquisition, but decided to start collecting its own data by the end of 2008.