Here are the newsmakers of 2019

As we are all set to say good-bye to 2019, let us look at some of the movers and shakers of the MF industry this year. The list includes head of AMCs who achieved new highs, fund houses that did well despite volatility in equity markets and credit events in the debt fund space, advisors who came up with innovative business ideas and IFAs who set new records in conducting SIP drives.      

Nilesh Shah, Managing Director Kotak MF

Nilesh Shah became the Chairman of AMFI this year. He also became a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council. EAC-PM is an independent body constituted to give advice on economic issues to the Prime Minister.

Under his leadership, Kotak MF has also emerged as one of the fastest growing and most profitable fund houses in 2019.   

Radhika Gupta, CEO, Edelweiss MF 

Radhika Gupta led Edelweiss MF has launched an initiative to celebrate ‘Financial Advisor’s Day’ on March 31 every year and acknowledge efforts of financial advisors.

Edelweiss MF has also grabbed headlines by launching Bharat Bond ETF, the country’s first corporate bond ETF.

Consolidation in advisory business

Many IFAs have merged their advisory business this year. The objective was to reduce costs by sharing various expenses such as execution platform, software, back-end operations, customer communication, marketing expenses and so on. Here are a few examples:

Twelve IFAs have merged their practices to form Moneygain Consultants. Chandigarh IFA Shobhit Gupta and Delhi IFA Sachin Jain founded it. The other members are Prashant Goyal, Varun Sikka, Gaurav Kumar, Bharat Ghai, Ramandeep Nain, Varun Khanna, Geetika Goyal, Jagjit Singh, Ankush Sharma and Harjinder Singh.

In a separate merger, Amit Bivalkar of Sapient Wealth, Pune, Paresh Kariya of Aargus, Mumbai and Pallav Bagaria of Brand New Day, Guwahati came together to form Sapient Wealth.

Two FIFA members Dhruv Mehta and Roopa Venkatkrishnan are said to be in the process of merging their business too.

Overall leaders

SBI MF saw the highest increase in its AUM this year. The fund house’s AAUM has risen by 13% or Rs 36,856 crore to Rs 3.21 lakh crore in September, from Rs 2.84 lakh crore in January this year. Next in the list are HDFC MF and ICICI Prudential MF with over Rs 34,000 crore and Rs 27,000 crore rise in their AAUM, respectively.

In percentage terms, fund houses such as Mirae Asset MF and IDFC MF boasted an increase of 38% and 36% AUM, respectively. 

Debt fund leaders

Even as the debt fund space witnessed multiple credit events, some fund houses have done well and increased their AUM at a healthy pace. Between January and September, the top fund houses – HDFC MF and ICICI Prudential – witnessed a rise of over Rs 22,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore in their debt AUM, respectively.

Apart from these fund houses, IDFC MF stood out by adding nearly Rs 20,000 crore of debt AUM. As on September this year, the fund house’s debt AAUM increased by over 40% to Rs 67,000 crore.    

Equity fund leaders

In equity funds, Mirae Asset has emerged as the fastest growing fund house this year. Between January and September this year, the company’s equity AAUM increased by Rs 8,000 crore or nearly 40% to over Rs 29,000 crore.    

During the same period, Kotak MF and SBI MF also witnessed an increase of more than Rs 8,000 crore in their equity AAUM, while Axis MF clocked a rise of over Rs 7,500 crore. 

Among categories, Value Research data shows that except small cap fund category, all other categories have given positive returns. Equity International topped the league with nearly 24% return this year. Banking funds with 15.20% and large cap funds with 10.54% followed this list.

SIP drives

Despite volatility in the equity fund, the MF industry have witnessed a steady increase in SIP inflows, thanks to SIP drives by IFAs. Here are a few IFAs who created new records by conducting SIP drives: