HDFC MF’s Prashant Jain 1st to manage Rs 1-lakh-crore equity assets

Mumbai: The market rally in July has made MF’s Prashant Jain the first fund manager in India to oversee Rs 1-lakh-crore equity assets. Jain manages Balanced Advantage, Flexi Cap and Top 100 funds at HDFC MF, apart from an India-dedicated scheme under exclusive mandate from a sovereign wealth fund.

The total AUM (assets under management) of the four funds crossed the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark on Tuesday night and jumped further by close of Wednesday’s session that saw the sensex add another 1.2%, sources said.

While there are other fund managers in charge of over Rs 1-lakh-crore AUM, a substantial part of those assets are in debt instruments, industry data showed. Among leading fund managers, R Srinivasan of MF and S Naren of MF also manage assets worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore across equity, debt and other instruments, industry data showed.

HDFC Mutual Fund didn’t comment on the milestone. The listed asset management company is within the mandatory silent period ahead of its quarterly results scheduled on Friday.

According to data collated from mutual fund industry analytics firm NGEN Research, Balanced Advantage Fund had an AUM of Rs 43,079 crore, while Flexicap Fund had Rs 26,511 crore and HDFC Top 100 Rs 19,910 crore as of June-end. About 25% of Balanced Advantage Fund’s AUM is in debt instruments, latest fund portfolio data showed.

Jain also has the unique distinction of being the first Indian fund manager to manage a fund for over 25 years. Launched in 1994, he has been managing Balanced Advantage Fund since inception. In an earlier interaction with TOI, Jain had said that about 25 years ago, he was managing just around Rs 120 crore worth of assets in this fund. In quarter of a century, the fund’s total assets have grown by over 350 times.