IDFC Mutual Fund is still new to the equity fund business
09-Dec-2008 •Research Desk
This one has had a colourful history of ownership. It started off as ANZ Grindlays Mutual Fund in 2000 and was renamed Standard Chartered Mutual Fund after the takeover of Grindlays Bank by Standard Chartered Bank. This year, the AMC was sold to Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) for approx $205 million, a high price indeed.
A specialised debt fund house, it moved into equity in 2005. Since then, it has made a sustained attempt to increase its exposure to equity, which now stands at 23 per cent.
This AMC introduced many new products in the category of debt funds, like the short-term fund and the dynamic fund. It also introduced a fund of funds which invests only in debt funds. Another first was the introduction of funds which sought to provide capital protection and stable returns. The fund house also set new service standards- it was the first one to offer same day redemption for cash funds and next day redemption for income funds.
In the past, most of the debt funds delivered below average returns. In fact, none of them were rated more than 3-star. Recently that has changed and IDFC Dynamic Bond Fund and the gilt fund IDFC GSF PF are now rated 4-stars.
