Colonial First State's index fund provider Realindex Investments has reached $2 billion in funds under management (FUM), up from $1.4 billion in February this year.
The company profited from a better understanding of the underlying methodology of its products and the heightened focus on costs as a result of the Cooper review.
Realindex also benefited from its decision to lower its minimum investment threshold to $25,000, which was partly done to make the funds more attractive for self-managed super fund investors.
The current line-up of products consists of four funds, but Realindex chief executive Andrew Francis expects to expand this range shortly.
"Emerging markets would be an area where we are looking to launch a new fund," Francis said.
He estimated that the product would be available within the next six months.
The new fund will hold a broad portfolio of stocks from countries that can also be found in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, including China, India, Brazil and South Africa, Francis said.
The company is also eyeing a global smaller companies fund, but the release of this product will still take some time.
"There are no plans for a launch yet, but if an institutional investor is interested and willing to seed a fund, then we will," Francis said.
Francis said that economics dictated that a new fund has to start with around $50 million in FUM.
Realindex runs funds that differ from more traditional index products in that the composition is determined by a company's economic footprint instead of its market capitalisation.
The footprint is measured by sales, cashflow, book value and dividends.
This method has added 2.3 per cent per annum to the Realindex Australian Share index fund since its inception in November 2008, compared with the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index as at 31 July 2010.
