Mumbai: Sam Ghosh, a veteran of India’s financial sector, is entering the mutual fund industry with his own venture. Markets regulator Sebi on Monday gave Cosmea Investments, the holding company for Ghosh’s financial ventures, the go-ahead to launch its mutual fund business.
The company had applied for an MF licence in May 2024. It would take about six months to launch operations, Ghosh told TOI. Initially, the group aims to invest Rs 200 crore in the fund management business. The proposed fund house will have products in both sub-segments of the industry, active and passive. The group currently has Sebi approval to run portfolio management services (PMS) and alternate investment fund (AIF) businesses. Under its PMS arm, the group manages about Rs 170 crore. AIF is a relatively new business that is just taking off, Ghosh said. It also has a license to run a fund management business in the GIFT City.
Cosmea’s capital markets division offers services that include broking & distribution, wealth management and advisory. All its capital market businesses collectively manage/advise assets worth about Rs 1,000 Crore.
In early 2000, Ghosh had led Bajaj’s insurance ventures in India in which global major Allianz was the partner. Then in 2008 he had moved to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital to lead the financial services entity that over the years emerged to be a major player in the mutual fund, broking and commercial finance sectors. He quit the group in 2017 to lead Bharti (Airtel) group’s financial services operations. After a few years he quit that to set up his own venture.
