The Balanced fund offered by ICICI Prudential is a fund that offers a mix of equity and debt investments so as to facilitate long term wealth creation. The nature of this fund brings balances growth and income through this investment philosophy. It also offers systematic investment and withdrawal options along with minimum investment amounts of Rs. 5,000. The fund also features attractive returns and has, between 2013 and 2015, managed to outperform its benchmark.
Type or nature of fund
This is an open-ended balanced fund.
Investment objective
The objective of this investment is to provide long term capital returns through a balanced investment in both the equity and debt markets. It also aims to reduce the volatility of the returns through measured investments.
Fund information
| Inception date | 3 November 1999 |
| CRISIL rank | 3 as of June 2015 |
| Plans | Regular and Direct |
| Options | The default option is Growth |
| Schemes |
|
| Entry load | Nil |
| Exit load | 1% of the NAV if the amount being withdrawn or switched has been invested from less than 1 year since allocation. |
| Minimum investment |
|
| SIP |
|
| Product label |
|
| Benchmark |
CNX Nifty Index CNX Nifty is the equity benchmark used by the NSE. It is computed based on the free floating method and covers 22 sectors of the Indian economy. |
| SWP | The minimum amount that can be withdrawn in an SWP is Rs. 500 with increments in multiples of of Re. 1. |
| STP | Available |
| Redemption | The minimum amount that can be withdrawn is Rs. 500 with increments in multiples of Re. 1. |
Fund manager(s)
Yogesh Bhatt (Equity)
- Education: ACA and CWA
- Past experience:
- Senior Fund Manager MF Equity, ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd
- Fund Manager - International advisory, ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd
- Dealer, ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd.
- ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Fund
- ICICI Prudential Top 200 Fund
- ICICI Prudential Exports and Other Services Fund
- ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 2
- ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 4
- ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 5
- ICICI Prudential Growth Fund – Series 6
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 Balanced Advantage Fund – Debt Portion
- 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
Investment philosophy or strategy
The investment philosophy followed in this fund is to adjust for risk on the returns through balanced investments in equity and debt. This means that if the markets are bullish, exporsure to equity may be increased to as much as 80% while it may be reduced to as little as 65% if the markets are bearish.
Portfolio (As of June 2015)
| Company/Sector | Investment |
| Government Securities | 20.61% |
Long Terms (Debt)
|
17.98% |
Software
|
9.07% |
Banks
|
13.86% |
Auto
|
6.98% |
Consumer Non Durables
|
6.53% |
Pharmaceuticals
|
6.35% |
Construction Project
|
4.04% |
Cement
|
3.22% |
Finance
|
3.02% |
Risk measures
|
Sharpe ratio |
1.29 |
|
Alpha |
|
|
Portfolio beta |
1.06 |
|
Std deviation |
10.89% (annual) |
Performance
| AUM | Rs. 2032.01 crores (As of 30 June 2015) |
| NAV (As of June 30, 2015) |
|
| Expense ratio |
|
Returns
| 2014-2015 (Absolute Returns) | 2013-2014 (Absolute Returns) | 2012-2013 (Absolute Returns) | Compound Annual Growth Rate (Since Inception) | |
| Scheme | 17.06% | 41.23% | 13.58% | 15.15% |
| NIFTY | 9.95% | 30.28% | 10.67% | 12.48% |
| NAV (in Rs.) | 77.86 | 55.13 | 48.54 | - |
The growth in this fund has been such that if Rs. 10,000 had been invested in it in the year of its inception, today it would have grown to about Rs. 91,140 in the scheme and to about Rs. 63,091 in the CNX Nifty index. This calculation has been done assuming the NAV to be Rs. 10.
Expert view of the fund
This is a fund that has consistently outperformed its benchmark between 2013 and 2015. It has a good ranking from CRISIL and has provided returns that have been in double digits, especially if the investment was made in SIP. The fund has about 67% investment in the equity market and about 32% in the debt markets. The best performing sectors in this fund have been banks, software and Government Securities.
How to apply
To be able to invest in this fund, ICICI Prudential has provided investors with two options. The first option is the offline investment choice where investors can approach the ICICI Prudential branch where they can get a complete understanding of the fund and get help with filling up all the forms required to initiate the investment.
The other option for investment is the online option where investors can log onto the ICICI Prudential website and start investing in the plan of their choice. This option is available to both new and existing investors. Payments for these investments can be done either through cheques and demand drafts or through debit cards and online options like NEFT and RTGS transfers.
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