Exclusive | Jio BlackRock gets GIFT City nod; to launch commodity ETFs in 3 months, says Sid Swaminathan

Jio BlackRock Mutual Fund, a 50:50 joint venture between Jio Financial Services and BlackRock, has received approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to start operations in GIFT City.

“We are pleased to share that we received our final license for setting up our entity in GIFT City. Through that, we want to offer international exposure to our investors here in India, as well as offer international investors access to Indian markets,” Sid Swaminathan told CNBC-TV18.

To set up operations in GIFT City, Jio BlackRock needed approvals from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and IFSCA, which regulates financial activities in India’s international financial services centres.

The fund house has already received in-principle SEBI approval for the GIFT City operations.

He further said the fund house still has to complete a few checks before operations commence from GIFT City over the next few months.

“We still have a few checks to complete, and operations need to be ready. The funds also have to be approved. But I would put that in the next few months in terms of the time horizon,” he added.

“With ETFs, we’re really going to start with a focus on commodities — gold and silver. One of the missing offerings that we have right now in our range is commodity exposure. So we want to make sure that we are able to offer that as well. That will be the first set of ETFs that we will look to launch,” Swaminathan added.

The fund house currently has ₹18,500 crore in assets under management across 14 schemes. Of these, five are fixed income schemes, three are active equity schemes, four are index equity schemes, one is an index debt scheme, and one is a hybrid scheme.

ALSO READ | Four in every 10 SIF investors now come from smaller cities, shows JioBlackRock AMC report