ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched India's first actively-managed, US-dedicated fund that will invest directly in the US equity markets. ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity Fund will be an open-ended equity scheme. Overall, it will be India's 31st international fund.
Investment Objective & Strategy
The investment objective is to provide long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.
The scheme will invest 65-100 per cent of its assets in bluechip companies listed on these exchanges. The rest of the portfolio will be invested in fixed income securities of India as well as of US. The scheme will not invest in derivatives or securitized debt. However, it may invest in ADRs/GDRs issued by Indian and foreign companies.
The fund manager will follow a combination of the top-down and bottom-up approaches without any sector preference.
Similar Funds
This will be the first actively-managed fund focused on US bluechip stocks. However, there are two more funds which also invest in only US stocks, but with a passive strategy. Recently launched FT India Feeder - Franklin US Opportunities invests in its US-based Franklin US Opportunities fund while Motilal Oswal MOSt Shares NASDAQ-100 ETF invests in stocks comprising NASDAQ Index.
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Fund Manager
Atul Patel and Chaitanya Pande will manage this fund. Mr. Patel, who has degrees in B.Com, CA & is also a graduate in CWA, would be responsible for the US portion, while Mr. Pande, who holds PGDM from IMI - New Delhi, would be responsible for the India portion of the fund.
Experience
Mr. Patel has three years of work experience - one year as a dealer and two years as a performance analyst. Mr. Pande has more than 10 years of experience in the fund management industry. He has worked for two years with JF Asset Management (India) Pvt. Ltd. as a Fund Manager and joined ICICI Pru AMC in 2002. Since then he has held various positions and currently is the Head-Fixed Income with ICICI Prudential AMC. Mr. Pande also manages almost all of the AMC's debt schemes.
Fund House
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has been around for more than 17 years. Its assets under management as on March 31, 2012 are Rs 68,817 crores and it is the third-largest fund house in the country.
Basic Details
NFO Opens: June 18, 2012
NFO Closes: July 2, 2012
NFO Price: Rs.10 per unit
Options: Growth & Dividend (with payout & re-investment option)
Minimum Application Amount: Rs.5000/-
Exit Load: 3% if redeemed/switched out within 3 months of allotment, 1% if redeemed/switched out after 3 months but within 1 year of allotment.
Benchmark: S&P 500 Index
Fund Managers: Atul Patel & Chaitanya Pande
