India's Bharti AXA to charge email investors less

MUMBAI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Bharti AXA Investment Managers will charge lower fees from investors in its first Indian equity fund if they choose to receive all communications through e-mail, it said in a statement on Friday.

The firm, which started its Indian operations in July and launched Bharti AXA Equity Fund on Sept 4, has lowered expense ratio for investors in the "Eco Plan" by 25 basis points. Equity funds typically charge an annual fee of up to 2.5 percent.

The option is available on a maximum investment of up to 200,000 rupees per transaction, the firm, a joint venture between India's Bharti Enterprises and AXA Investment Managers and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (AXA.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), said.

Eco-friendly initiatives have received little attention from investors in the surging domestic funds industry so far.

India's first environment friendly and socially responsible fund from ABN AMRO Asset Management collected 750 million rupees last year, low by Indian standards. Its assets slumped to about 202 million rupees at July-end, data from global fund tracker Lipper LIPPER showed. (Reporting by Nishant Kumar; editing by Harish Nambiar)