While HDFC Mutual Fund is still the No 1 player in the mutual fund industry with the highest average assets under management (AAUM) in the quarter ending September 2014, it is getting rather hot at the top with two other funds gnawing at its top spot.
Birla Sun Life MF has become the latest entrant into the ₹1 lakh crore AAUM club in the industry with its assets crossing the ₹1 lakh crore mark.
According to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) data for the latest quarter ending Sept 2014, the total AAUM of the MF industry was ₹10,58, 693.17 crore compared to ₹9,87,240.17 crore in the previous quarter ending June 30, 2014.
(This is excluding Fund of Funds-domestic but including FoF-overseas). What was notable was that nearly 50 per cent of the AAUM was accounted for by just four funds- HDFC MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Reliance MF and Birla Sun Life MF-, in that order. Their cumulative AAUM was about 4.94 lakh crore.
HDFC MF is maintaining its numero uno position in the MF industry with its AAUM growing to ₹1.41 lakh crore in the latest quarter ending Sept 2014 as against ₹1.30 lakh crore in the previous quarter (June 2014), a shade less than 9 per cent growth.
It was followed by ICICI Prudential MF with ₹1.27 lakh crore ( ₹1.18 lakh crore in the earlier quarter), Reliance MF with ₹1.22 lakh crore (₹1.12 lakh crore) and the newest entrant into the ₹1 lakh crore club Birla Sun Life MF that has seen its assets edge up to ₹1.02 lakh crore in the Sept quarter as against ₹98,555.78 crore in the quarter ending June this year.
However, the gap between the top four MFs and their closest competitors was huge. UTI MF with AUM of ₹83,249.91 crore, SBI MF with its assets at ₹72,849.89 crore and Franklin Templeton MF with AUM of ₹55,611.15 crore were the only three other funds with AUM exceeding ₹50,000 crore. IDFC MF was close to reaching it with AUM of ₹45,737.96 crore. It has just closed the lump sum investment option (other than by way of SIP/STP) in its popular IDFC Premier Equity Fund that was open for nearly four months-from May 27 to Sept 30.