Sebi diktat to impact large funds the most

Large fund houses will be impacted the most by the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) new diktat to bring all equity schemes under 10 sub-categories. An analysis of existing large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, multi-cap and tax planning categories shows fund houses such as ICICI Prudential MF, Sundaram MF, Birla Sun Life MF and Reliance MF have the larger number of schemes between them, totalling in excess of 150. Small and even mid-size fund houses, on the other hand, do not have much duplication, data provided by Value Research shows. Merging several schemes could increase the size under a particular category significantly. The larger size could lead to a re-allocation of responsibilities for the fund managers after the merger. The total expense ratio charged by a scheme will reduce as expenses are charged slab-wise, based on assets under management. This will benefit investors, particularly those who invested in smaller schemes. Investors will not face any tax liability, as scheme mergers are not considered as transfer of units and will not lead to any capital gains. The impact on future returns, though, remains uncertain.  

Source: Value Research