SBI Mutual Fund has moved three notches up to emerge as the largest fund house by displacing HDFC Mutual Fund and ICICI MF at the top.

The asset under management of SBI MF was up by ₹21,000 crore month-on-month to ₹3.82-lakh crore at the end of January while that of HDFC MF was at ₹3.79 lakh crore. ICICI MF came a distant third with an AUM of ₹3.68 lakh crore.

The sharp jump in equity markets and reversal of inflow into debt schemes had pushed up assets of mutual fund industry in January.

Incidentally, SBI MF is already the largest when it comes to managing equity assets. Its equity AUM was up by ₹3,000 crore month-on-month to ₹1.93-lakh crore while debt assets increased by ₹15,000 crore to ₹1.63-lakh crore, ranking third in the industry.

The fund house operates 695 schemes of which 334 are open-ended and 361 are close-ended.

Strong process-orientation

Tarun Birani Founder and CEO of TBNG Capital Advisors said to review the work of any fund house four ‘P’s are important such as process, people, performance and parent.

SBI MF demonstrated strong process-orientation while following mandates and focus on themes such as ESG helped them in moving towards better quality portfolio. Moreover, the diversified fund management team helped it in getting more divergent views resulting in better portfolio construction, he said.

Systematic investment plan (SIP) has become the most preferred route for retail investors. Investments through SIP stayed above ₹8,000-crore-mark for 14 consecutive months with a new high of ₹8,532 crore in January.

The SIP AUM increased by ₹7,846 crore to ₹3.25-lakh crore. The industry opened 12.07 lakh SIPs in January while 5.95 lakh of them were either closed or matured last month. The overall SIP account in operations was at 3.03 crore.

The systematic investment plan route of investments would have benefited SBI MF the most as its parent SBI with the largest bank branch network in rural India, propagating SIP culture to its customers, said an analyst.

The AUM of mutual fund industry was up 5 per cent at ₹27.85-lakh crore last month.

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