ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund

The Balanced Advantage Fund offered by ICICI Prudential is a fund that allows investors to take advantage of both the equity and debt markets. It is meant for investors who are looking for returns in the long run and are ok with a higher risk profile. The fund has no entry loads and not exit loads either if investments are not withdrawn within a specific period. One of the advantages of this fund is that it can take advantage even of volatile markets.

Type or nature of fund

This is an open ended equity fund.

Investment objective

The objective of this fund is to create wealth over a long period of time through a balanced investment in equity markets as well as debt markets and money instruments. It also aims to do this by mitigating the risk from equity markets as much as possible by not sticking to a single strategy alone.

Fund information

Fund manager(s)

Manish Gunwani (Equity)

• Education: B.Tech from IIT Chennai and PGDM from IIM Banglore
• Past experience:
• Senior Fund Manager – ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd.
• Head-India operations - Vicisoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd
• Sr. Analyst - Lehman Brothers
• Head – Midcap Team - Brics Securities
• Analyst(portfolio management) - Lucky Securities
• Co-founder - Vicisoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd
• Research Analyst – SSKI
• Other funds managed
• ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund
• ICICI Prudential R.I.G.H.T. (Rewards of Investing and Generation of Healthy Tax Savings) Fund
• ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund – Equity Portion
• ICICI Prudential Equity Savings Fund Series 1
• ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 1
• ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 3
• ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 7

Ashwin Jain (Equity)

• Education: B.E and PGDM
• Past experience:
• Senior Analyst at Merill Lynch
• Research Analyst at Irevna (part of the Standards and Poor's Group)
• Software Engineer at HCL Technologies
• Other funds managed
• ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 3
• ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund

Manish Banthia (Debt)

• Education: B.COM, CA and MBA
• Past experience:
• Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.
• Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd.
• Other funds managed
• ICICI Prudential Equity Arbitrage Fund - Debt Portion
• ICICI Prudential Short Term Plan
• ICICI Prudential Blended Plan A – Debt Portion
• ICICI Prudential Long Term Plan
• ICICI Prudential Gold Exchange Traded Fund
• ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
• ICICI Prudential Child Care Plan – Study Plan – Debt portion
• ICICI Prudential Child Care Plan – Gift Plan – Debt portion
• ICICI Prudential Monthly Income Plan – Debt Portion
• ICICI Prudential MIP 25 – Debt portion
• ICICI Prudential Income Opportunities Fund
• ICICI Prudential Income Plan
• ICICI Prudential Balanced Fund – Debt Portion
• ICICI Prudential Gilt Fund Investment Plan PF Option
• ICICI Prudential Equity Income Fund – Debt portion

Investment philosophy or strategy

The philosophy of the ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund is to invest in such a way as to provide returns that are not too volatile. This means that the returns are fairly steady which is achieved by investing in a mix of debt and equity market instruments. Equity investments in this fund are made to hedge against any bad spells in the debt markets.

Portfolio

Risk measures

Performance

Returns

The growth in this plan has been such that if someone had invested Rs. 10,000 at inception, their investment would now be valued at Rs. 25,580 as opposed to the value the benchmark would have provided, which would be Rs. 21,098.48.

Expert view of the fund

This is a fund that can take advantage of volatile markets. It keeps 65% for equity investments and invests in debt markets too. The investment strategy of this fund provides the returns that are slightly higher than what can be expected from debt markets but not as volatile as those provided by the equity markets. This fund also has outperformed its benchmark consistently and has investments in both large and mid cap stocks. Investments made in the debt market have also been concentrated more towards maturity period that were short or medium.

How to apply

To apply offline for this mutual fund, investors can visit any branch of ICICI Prudential. They will then be able to talk to the representatives and get any doubts answered. The representative will also be able to help them fill up and submit the forms and make payments towards the investments. These payments can be made by cheques and demand drafts. This mutual fund is also available with certified distributors.

To apply online for this mutual fund, all investors have to do is to visit the fund website and register as existing or new investors. Once that is done they will be able to invest in this fund online. Investments can be made through lump sum payments and SIPs and the payments can be done via NEFT/RTGS transfers and debit cards.