Following a directive from SEBI, mutual fund houses now have to disclose group companies’ investments in their schemes. Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund topped the list in March 2014 in terms of absolute investment. Affiliate companies’ investment stood at almost ₹6,585 crore, a little over 7 per cent of its total assets. Of SBI Mutual Fund’s total assets, investment by associate companies accounted for over 7.5 per cent (₹5,218 crore). Other fund houses that had sizeable investments from group companies include ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (₹4,971 crore), HDFC Mutual Fund (₹4,032 crore) and Reliance Mutual Fund (₹3,650 crore).
Changes at the top
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has announced change in fund manager in four schemes. The India portion of ICICI Prudential Indo-Asia Equity will be managed by Vinay Sharma, the Asia portion by Ashwin Jain. Vinay Sharma will also manage ICICI Prudential’s FMCG Fund and Target Returns Fund. Tax saver fund R.I.G.H.T will be jointly managed by Manish Gunwani and Rajat Chandak.
Moderation in inflation, coupled with a recovery in the economy, has raised hopes of a softer rate regime in the medium term. Even as fund houses launched fixed term plans (FTPs) of various maturities, the market is flooded with one-year FTPs. Currently, six FTP schemes — Birla Sun Life FTP Series LK, DSP BlackRock Series 164 and 165, HSBC Fixed Term Series 102, IDFC FTP Series 93 and Kotak FMP Series 161 — are open for subscription. A cut in key interest rates, whenever it happens, may further benefit these funds.
Small surges ahead
The Sensex may be at a new high but quite a few mid- and small-cap stocks have raced ahead of their large-cap counterparts in the last three years. This probably prompted ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund to seek regulatory approval to float a small-cap fund. The fund house has filed the draft scheme information document with SEBI. The fund is proposed to be launched as close-ended.
Some more time
Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has extended the last date for investing in its new fund Emerging Leaders Series 1 by five more days, up to May 5, 2014.