ICICI Pru Flexicap Fund collects highest ever amount of Rs 10k cr in NFO

The Flexicap fund from ICICI Prudential MF aims to follow a mix of top-down and bottom-up approach to spot opportunities in large-, mid- and small-cap spaces respectively

ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund has collected around Rs 10,000 crore in its new fund offer (NFO), which closed on Monday.

Market participants say that this is the highest amount raised by any active equity fund in the history of mutual funds.

The Flexicap fund from ICICI Prudential MF aims to follow a mix of top-down and bottom-up approach to identify opportunities in the large-, mid- and small-cap spaces respectively.

The investment universe for the scheme will be the S&P BSE 500, an index of top 500 companies in terms of market value.

The stock selection can be based on multiple parameters such as company fundamentals, valuations, and so on.

"ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund NFO has been a resounding success. Over 4 lakh retail investor applied to the NFO. This would not have been possible without the support of more than 15,000 distributors spread across the country who helped us in taking the product to every discerning investors," said the spokesperson of the fund house. 

“We have been getting strong responses from our other NFOs too in the last few months. Investors have shown faith in our funds given the strong long term track record of performance,” said an official from the fund house.

The fund house had stated that the idea here is that during volatile times, large caps tend to limit downside and can provide liquidity to the portfolio. On the other hand, with expected economic recovery post the lockdown phase, mid and small caps may be better positioned to capture potential upside in the economic recovery journey.

Market participants say that investors have been attracted towards flexicap schemes as it invests across largecap, midcap and smallcap stocks without any minimum threshold. This gives the fund manager the option to rotate the money depending on the market condition.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had introduced the flexicap category in November last year after modifying characteristics of multicap schemes in September 2020.

Last month, flexi cap funds saw net inflows of Rs 1,087 crore while net assets under management (AUM) for the category rose to Rs 1.76 trillion—second most in the equity category after ‘large cap’.

In the last few months several of the NFOs have been well-received by investors amid  surge in equity markets. In the period between January-June NFOs have collected Rs 19,300 crore.