LICMF set to launch specialised investment fund in Oct; eyes Rs 500 crore corpus

CHENNAI: LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Limited (LICMF) on Monday said it is gearing up to launch a specialised investment fund (SIF) with a corpus of Rs 500 crore in October this year.

"We are awaiting Sebi's approval," Ravi Kumar Jha, MD-CEO, LICMF, told reporters here, noting that such a fund would lead to the introduction of Rs 10 lakh as the minimum ticket size, targeted at high networth individuals (HNIs).

The SIF would offer taxation benefits too.

For now, Portfolio Management Services (PMS) with threshold of Rs 50 lakh and Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with Rs 1 crore limit are the routes available to the HNIs and super HNIs to park their funds, unlike the SIF scheme that enables a much lesser ticket size.

Preparations are underway to launch the scheme, though Jha is quick to add it hinges on prevailing market conditions, post Sebi approval.
LIC MF's current assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 50,875 crore as of July 31, 2026, against Rs 40,922 crore on July 31, 2025.

The company, which has 56 branches, is now on an aggressive growth mode, targeting Rs 1 lakh crore AUM by March 31, 2027.

As part of its expansion plan to touch 100 branches nation-wide, it is seeking to house them near 113 divisional offices of LIC, thereby leveraging the insurer's agency network.

Jha also said to achieve the AUM target, it would focus on three key sectors: retail investors through systematic investment plans (SIPs), banking institutions and corporate and institutional clients.

To a query, he said "this year we are not keen to issue any NFO since we are seeing the equity market is not so positive.”

Over three years, it has launched five products in the manufacturing , consumption and technology sectors.

LICMF has also been a pioneer in introducing 'Pocket SIP', whereby investors can begin their SIP journey with small, flexible ticket sizes- daily SIP at Rs 100, weekly SIP at Rs 150, monthly SIP at Rs 200, and quarterly SIP at Rs 1,000.

Till date, investors have initiated around 2 lakh Pocket SIPs, the fund house said.