Thanks to the newfound equity investment mania among retail investors and sharp rally in the equity market, Nippon India Mutual Fund has the registered highest gain of 28 per cent in average assets under management among top-10 fund houses last year. It was closely followed by Mirae Asset MF with 27 per cent while ICICI Prudential AMC and HDFC AMC posing a tie at 23 per cent growth each for the third place.

Nippon India AMC’s average AUM jumped to ₹3.78 lakh crore in the December quarter against ₹2.93 lakh crore in the March quarter, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India data. Mirae AMC assets increased to ₹1.47 lakh crore (₹1.16 lakh crore). ICICI Pru AMC and HDFC AMC assets were up to ₹6.14 lakh crore (₹4.99 lakh crore) and ₹5.51 lakh crore (₹4.50 lakh crore).

The country’s largest mutual fund SBI Funds Management registered 17 per cent growth in average AUM at ₹8.51 lakh crore (₹7.18 lakh crore) last year.

Despite heady outflows from debt funds, the overall average AUM of mutual fund industry increased 21 per cent to ₹49.22 lakh crore in December quarter against ₹40.51 lakh crore in the March quarter. In fact, the average AUM of top-10 fund houses at ₹38.75 lakh crore accounted for 79 per cent of the total assets of ₹49.22 lakh as of December-end.

Focus on small towns

Interestingly, the number of mutual funds itself has gone up to 45 from 42 with SEBI showing keen interest in widening the reach to rural areas. Despite SEBI suspending special incentives for attracting investments from beyond the top-30 cities, large fund houses are focused on getting new investors from small cities.

Sundeep Sikka, ED & CEO, Nippon India MF said the fund house remains focused to create wealth for investors from small cities with strong risk management and institutional processes. “Looking ahead, our efforts will be to empower ‘Bharat’ with accessible investment solutions and leverage technology to expand our reach besides building trust through performance,” he said.

Kavitha Narayan, Vice President & Head, Research & New Initiatives, Capricorne Mindframe said distributors are reaching out to smaller cities to gain the first mover advantage and build strong long-term relationships with the investor community.

However, she said building a business model for distributors in smaller cities will be viable only if the fund flow is consistent in the long-term, she added.

Published on January 6, 2024