It is not only the Initial Public Offer (IPO) market that's bustling. New fund offerings (NFOs) launched by mutual fund houses have also seen a big boost this year.
A total of 37 equity NFOs collected Rs 11,961 crore in the first eight months of 2017. This is the highest mobilisation through new offers since 2008. Launches, at eight, had hit bottom in 2012. With revival in the secondary market and consistent inflow into MF schemes since early 2014, the activity here has seen a gradual pick-up.
This has come at a time when market participants had thought NFOs would be out of vogue and they'd have to focus on growing the existing offerings. The average NFO size this year has seen a considerable increase to Rs 323 crore, from Rs 115 crore last year. Inflows through the route was 15 per cent of net equity inflow into the MF sector in 2017; for Jauary-August, equity schemes had total inflow of Rs 81,000 crore.
