ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund: Striking gold in the hybrid fund mine

ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund, launched in November 1999, featured in the top 30th percentile of the aggressive hybrid fund category of the CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking (CMFR) for three consecutive quarters through March 2024.

The fund’s month-end assets under management rose to Rs 33,502 crore in March 2024 from Rs 16,395 crore in March 2021, translating into an annualised growth rate of 26.9 per cent compared to the category’s 17.95 per cent.

The fund aims to provide capital growth as well as regular income by predominantly investing in equities, with debt and money market securities making up a smaller pie.

Manish Banthia, Sankaran Naren, Mittul Kalawadia, Sri Sharma, and Akhil Kakkar have been managing this fund since September 2013, December 2015, December 2020, April 2021, and January 2024, respectively.

Trailing returns

The fund consistently outperformed the benchmark (CRISIL Hybrid 35+65 — Aggressive Index) and its peers (funds ranked under the aggressive hybrid fund category in the March 2024 CMFR) across all analysed periods.

To put this in perspective, an investment of Rs 10,000 in the fund on April 2, 2002, would have grown to Rs 3.7 lakh (an annualised return of 17.71 per cent) on May 23, 2024.

In comparison, the same investment in the category would have grown to Rs 2.4 lakh (an annualised return of 15.43 per cent) and in the benchmark to Rs 1.83 lakh (14.04 per cent).

Additionally, a monthly investment of Rs 10,000 for the past 10 years in the fund, totalling Rs 12 lakh, would have increased to Rs 31.53 lakh (18.44 per cent annualised return) as of May 23, 2024, versus Rs 24.34 lakh (13.61 per cent) in the case of the benchmark.

(A systematic investment plan is a disciplined mode of investment offered by mutual funds through which one can invest a certain amount at regular intervals.)

Portfolio analysis

Over the past three years, the fund’s asset mix has comprised an average allocation of 72.01 per cent in equity and 27.99 per cent in debt.

The equity portfolio was diversified across market capitalisations, with predominant exposure to largecap stocks; allocations to largecap stocks averaged 64.33 per cent, and to mid and smallcap stocks, 4.15 per cent and 3.53 per cent, respectively.

Further, the equity portfolio was diversified across 19 sectors, with financial services comprising the largest average allocation of 18.57 per cent, followed by energy (16.31 per cent), automotive (8.16 per cent), telecommunications (7.06 per cent), and information technology (6.87 per cent).

The fund’s debt portfolio primarily consisted of sovereign securities.

Allocation to sovereign paper averaged 11.13 per cent, AAA/A1+ rated securities 1.07 per cent, and sub-AAA-rated securities 7.32 per cent.