Retail investors are driving the mutual fund revolution beyond top cities

In big metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, the biggest mutual fund clients may be corporates. But when it comes to rest of India, small is beautiful. Nondescript towns and cities across India are today as much as part of the mutual fund revolution sweeping the country as some of the biggest cities. Classified as B30 (beyond top 30 cities), these places are home to investors who are driven by the same passion to get inflation-beating returns. The retail category holds a dominating 53% of B30 assets, followed by HNIs (27%) at a distant second place and corporates at 3rd place (15%). Overall, B30 MF assets stood at Rs 3.37 lakh crore at the end of July 2017, where about 45% of money is in equity. Read on to know more. B30 masters Mutual fund houses or asset management companies have consciously gone beyond the top 15 or 30 cities. This year, Sebi has also allowed mutual fund houses to charge additional expenses from customers from beyond top 30 cities, as against beyond top 15 cities earlier (announced in 2012). To read about geographical spread of MFs in different states, click here. So, let us see who are ruling the roost when it comes to B15/30. At an absolute asset level, SBI Mutual Fund, helped by SBI's nationwide presence, is the undisputed B30 champion with nearly Rs 59,000 crore. It is followed by HDFC MF (Rs 41,645 crore), Reliance MF (Rs 39,468 crore), UTI MF (Rs 38,463 crore) and ICICI Prudential MF (Rs 37,872 crore). Our data shows AMCs have witnessed 65% growth to Rs 3.37 lakh crore in B15 (now B30) assets compared to 2015 when there was Rs 2.04 lakh crore. But year on year, there seems to be a fall. At the end of July 2017, B15/30 assets stood at Rs 3.58 lakh crore. Probably, this is why Sebi chose to increase incentives in 2018. As a percentage of total assets, the picture in terms of B15/30 leaders does change as many small AMCs enter the fray. They may not have huge amount of assets, but their size is not a deterrent for spreading beyond top cities. Top 10 AMCs which have had the highest AUM from B15/30 cities AMC2015201620172018Union20.5324.8728.5130.6