In 1994, the entire MF industry in the country managed assets of about Rs25,000 crore, with almost all of it in closed-end funds. Compare this with the volumes today: with around 3,500 funds (and over 10,000 plans), hacking through the thicket of near-identical funds is a daunting task. We profile the top 5 fund houses, their strategies and key drivers.
Despite having been around for about a decade, the variables in its favour—brand name, product range, performance and partnership with Sun Life—were not reflected in its scale of business. Hopefully, that is changing as this asset management company is now one of the fastest growing players.
Though it boasts of a distribution network of 120 branches across India, with 2.4 million customers, equity assets (which predominantly come from the retail base) still form a very small portion of overall assets. The retail component in the fixed-income basket is around 40%. Now the fund is working on increasing penetration across the country and brand-building. Over the past 12 months, it has done well on the equity side. Exactly a year ago, of the 14 Birla Sun Life MF funds which boasted of five-star and four-star ratings, just one was an equity offering—Birla Sun Life Equity. This time, their list has five equity funds and two hybrids (a monthly income plan and an equity-oriented balanced fund).