Marcellus Investment Managers has partnered with global asset manager VanEck to expand its GIFT City offering from global equities to a multi-asset strategy covering equity, fixed-income, commodities and real assets ETFs.
Under the arrangement, VanEck will provide model portfolio recommendations for the strategy, which will be structured and managed by Marcellus through its GIFT City entity. The strategy will be offered through a Category III AIF feeder structure into the master fund.
The move comes after Marcellus launched its Global Equities Fund through GIFT IFSC in June, giving Indian investors a dollar-based route to global equity exposure. That fund focused on global companies positioned around long-term themes such as artificial intelligence, defence spending, power and data infrastructure and luxury consumption.
Marcellus' GIFT City operations have built more than $75 million in assets across over 1,000 investors over nearly four years. The new strategy will widen the investment universe beyond stocks to include global bonds, commodities and real assets, including exposures through ETFs to themes such as gold, uranium, nuclear energy and semiconductors.
The expansion comes as GIFT City increasingly becomes a route for Indian investors looking beyond domestic assets. Moneycontrol reported in August that GIFT IFSC had close to 400 registered funds, up sharply from around 85 three years earlier, with the ecosystem adding new funds at a rapid pace. The International Financial Services Centres Authority is also examining the secondary listing of global ETFs on IFSC exchanges, potentially widening the range of overseas products available through the financial centre.