A study of the top 15 fund houses shows that 70% of equity AUM came from non-associate distributors, as on December 2017. Non-associate distributors are other than sponsors of AMCs engaged in mutual fund distribution such as IFAs, bank and NDs.
Of the total equity AUM of Rs.8.93 lakh crore of the top 15 fund houses, non-associate distributors contributed Rs.6.25 lakh crore, as on December 2017.
Despite the presence of the parent company, in the form of bank or large financial services arm, top fund houses rely on individual distributors to distribute their equity funds.
Cafemutual has classified equity funds, ELSS, balanced and ETFs in equity funds category for the purposes of this report.
Of the top 15 fund houses, HDFC MF had the highest share of their equity AUM from non-associate distributors at Rs.1.10 lakh crore – i.e., 72% of their total equity AUM.
Equity funds
As a few fund houses among the top 15 do not have balanced funds or ETFs, we segregated the categories while comparing the contribution from different fund houses.
In absolute terms, HDFC MF witnessed the highest increase in equity assets (pure equity and ELSS) from non-associate distributors in one year. The equity assets from the non-associate distributors increased by Rs.22,261 crore, or nearly 50%, over December 2016.
ICICI Prudential MF followed HDFC MF. The equity assets from non-associate distributors of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund was at Rs.72,145 crore, which was 65% of the overall equity assets in December 2017. The assets from non-associate distributors increased by 36% in one year.
In percentage terms, L&T Mutual Fund saw the highest increase in equity contribution from non-associate distributors. The equity assets increased by 124%, or Rs.15,454 crore, in December 2017.
Balanced funds
The balanced fund category was the flavour of the season in 2017. Many top fund houses witnessed triple-digit growth in this category.
HDFC MF had the highest assets in this category from non-associate distributors. It stood at Rs.42,159 crore in December 2017. The fund house also saw the highest increase in balanced fund category in one year. The category witnessed an increase of nearly Rs.25,000 crore, a massive jump of 145%, in assets from non-associate distributors.
ICICI Prudential MF followed HDFC MF which saw an increase of Rs.14,239 crore, or 145%, to Rs.25,000 crore.
Some of the other fund houses that witnessed a higher increase in assets of balanced funds from non-associate distributors include Reliance MF (180%), Aditya Birla Sun Life MF (212%), and UTI MF (173%).
