Reliance disputes Prudential ICICI claims to top MF spot

Assets managed by the mutual fund industry set a new record for the month of February, despite the volatility in stock markets. Total assets, fund of funds, managed by the industry went up by Rs13,646 crore to R3,53,309 crore as at the end of the month from R3,39,663 crore as of end January 2007. The industry had Rs2,07,110 crore in assets under management as of January 2006.

With a massive Rs8,535 crore increase in assets, Prudential ICICI reclaimed the title of top mutual fund house in the country.  The fund house had occupied the top spot for a couple months during the last calendar year before losing out to close competitors UTI MF and Reliance MF. Much of the additions for Prudential ICICI during the last month have come in liquid money market schemes, which have become attractive for large and institutional investors because of rising call rates.

However, Reliance MF maintains that it still retains the top position on the basis of average assets for the month. Reliance MF, which was the top mutual fund house in the country in January, added Rs3,196 crore to assets under management (AuM) over the pervious month. Though its month-end assets was more than Rs1,000 crore lower than Prudential ICICI, it is way ahead of the latter on average assets for the month. Average assets managed by Reliance MF in February was at Rs43,593 crore as compared to Rs39,079 crore for Prudential ICICI.

Mutual fund rankings have been traditionally based on month-end assets as mandatory reporting of average monthly assets started only last year.

UTI Mutual Fund, which had seen an erosion in assets for the previous two months, added more than Rs1,000 crore during February to occupy the third spot. UTI MF has been the top fund manager for the last many years, before the private sector players Prudential ICICI and Reliance MF started challenging it last year onwards.

Fund House	Feb 2007	Feb 2006	Jan 2007
Prudential ICICI	43,281	21,367	34,746
Reliance MF	42,216	16,859	39,020
UTI MF	38,603	27,619	37,535
HDFC MF	31,080	20,122	31,425
Franklin Templeton	22,102	17,996	23,908
Birla Sun Life	21,070	12,296	21,190
SBI MF	18,474	12,892	17,552
Tata MF	14,199	8,725	13,222
DSP Merrill Lynch	13,638	9,466	13,440
Kotak Mahindra	13,406	7,822	12,674
Standard Chartered	12,997	11,813	12,746
HSBC	11,962	9,060	12,140
LIC MF	11,497	7,239	12,237
Principal	10,600	6,935	10,333
Figures in Rs Crore	Source: AMFI