NJ Global Opportunities Fund: a platform for investing into the Indian market

The NJ Global Opportunities Fund, the latest venture of NJ Group, offers the opportunity of investment into mutual funds in India, which entered the $2 trillion Gross Domestic Product circle in 2014.

The Indian market is increasingly positioning itself as the land of opportunities for investors around the world. It is keeping this potential in mind that the NJ Group, a well-diversified group founded by NeerajChoksi and Jignesh Desai in India in 1994, proceeded to the launch of the NJ Global Opportunities Fund last week.

The fund, a public fund domi-ciled in Mauritius managed by Cim Global Business, will essentially be investing into mutual funds India. A minimum investment of $5,000 is required to be able to participate in this venture. The closing date for participation is February 16.

The NJ group was started with a view to cater for the growing investment services market in India. With the growing sophistication and the advent of the private sector mutual funds in India, NJ created a technology-led state-of- the-art platform for financial advisers and investors to invest in mutual funds and other financial products in India. NJ’s mutual fund distribution platform continues to remain its flagship business; with close to 20,000 IFAs, 1.5 million customers on its platform and nearly $3 billion of assets under advice.

The group has, in the last 20 years, diversified from financial services (mutual distribution, portfolio management, asset management) into real estate development, insurance broking, information techno-logy and training and development. It entered the international foray in the year 2011 by setting up NJ Global Invest as a GBL 1 company in Mauritius and acquired the Investment Dealer license. NJ Global also has a branch office in the DIFC, Dubai in the UAE.

“Our first target is to give good experience to investors. In the long run, NJ Global has aspirations to have a similar scale of business as it has in India, serving international customers,” states Neeraj Choksi.

The choice of Mauritius has been a particularly strategic one for this launch, owing to the fact that it is a friendly jurisdiction, who has at the same time imposed strong governance on itself while positioning itself as a gateway to Africa.

Prospects in ICT in Mauritius

“NJ believes that Africa is going to be a big growth story of the future and Mauritius could be the best place to access it. Our experience with Mauritius has been very good for the last 4 years and we are optimistic about Mauritius as one of the most prominent offshore jurisdictions in the world and a place to be in,” highlights Neeraj Choksi.

The group foresees great prospects in the information technology sector in Mauritius and Africa and is even seriously considering extending their IT set-up here on the island; unfazed by the uncertainties around the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement the two countries share.

For NeerajChoksi, the treaty goes long back and despite all the upheavals, has worked out well for both the countries. Consistently, every government has stood by the treaty, he notes. It might however be time to make some amendments. “Both countries continue to enjoy a friendly relationship. The concern was on misuse of the treaty by some of the entities solely for the purpose of evading taxes. I guess the two governments are forward looking and shall come out with a solution which shall bridge the loopholes and at the same time continue the benefit for legitimate businesses,” voices out Neeraj Choksi.

The NJ Group, through the launch of the NJ Global Opportunities Fund, is targeting 25,000 investors in the first year of ope-rations and remains confident that its previous track record will help meet this objective.