Mumbai: Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund became the fastest growing fund house in the country even as the industry as a whole posted de-growth last year, a top company official said.

The Asset Under Management (AUM) of Birla Sun Life which was only Rs20,000 crore as of March 07 went up to Rs35,000 crore as of March 08 and to Rs48,500 crore as of February 09, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund CEO Anil Kumar told PTI.

He said the industry as a whole has ‘de-grown´ during 08\09 as the AUM of the entire industry as of March 08 was Rs5,30,000 crore which went down to Rs5,08,000 crore as of February 09.

Latest reports suggest the AUM of the industry as of March 09 was down further to Rs4,94,000 crore.

Kumar said Birla Sun Life has the highest growth in AUMs. Few other players have had positive growth and many have posted flat growth or even de-growth, he pointed out.

He, however, conceded that the equity component of AUM is showing sluggishness and as of February, equity accounted for only about 15 to 20% of the total AUM against 24% as of March 08.

The fund has doubled its distribution base to over 26,000 and number of branches now stand at 109. The customer base has doubled to 21.5 lakh, Kumar said.