So far, a rocky road for closed-end funds

While the early-launched closed-end mutual funds ones delivered, some seem to be lagging behind their peers and benchmarks

Kayezad E. Adajania
Updated15 Mar 2017, 09:31 AM IST
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It has been almost 3 years since the first wave of closed-end funds was launched. From the first such scheme—IDFC Equity Opportunity Fund-Series 1 (IEOF1)—which was launched in April 2013, the Indian mutual funds industry has launched over 100 closed-end funds till date. Collectively, they have collected Rs18,000 crore. Closed-end funds came with a promise of giving better returns than open-ended funds. Although most of the closed-end funds are still serving time, we think it’s a good time to check how they have done so far. 

At a broader level, closed-end funds have failed to impress. Over the past 2 years, closed-end funds in the mid-cap space returned 3.23%, while open-ended schemes returned 4.72% (see table). Over the last 2 years, many closed-end funds too have completed 2 years.

Some managers of these funds could claim, with some justification, that their mandate—as defined by the Scheme Information Document—is to beat their benchmark index, not their peers. But did they score on this count?

About 65-85% of the large-cap, multi-cap, mid-cap and small-cap schemes have beaten their benchmark indices. But these numbers aren’t so great numbers if you dig a little deeper. Schemes like Sundaram Select Micro Cap – Series I, Sundaram Select Micro Cap – Series III and Reliance Capital Builder-Series A outperformed their benchmark indices, but came in the bottom quintile of the small-cap category.

Sunil Subramaniam, chief executive officer, Sundaram Asset Management Co. Ltd, said: “I am not sure if our schemes have been compared to the correct set because our micro-cap funds have been very thematic. For instance, our first few series focused on multinational companies, the next few focused on cyclical industries and so on.”  

Then, there are schemes that have underperformed their benchmark indices as well as their category averages. “Our scheme’s benchmark index consists of larger-sized mid-cap scrips, while the fund itself goes for small-sized companies. The share prices of underlying companies of the benchmark index have risen (more), as compared to the companies that our fund holds,” says a fund manager of one such scheme who did not wish to be named because he says the closed-end tenure is not yet over and comparing the fund at this juncture ‘wouldn’t be fair.’ He justified the stock selection saying: “Our set of companies do well, typically, when there is a secular bull run, as opposed to flat markets that we’ve seen recently.”  Time will tell if his claims come true.

Experts say that closed-end funds have performed in pockets. “Schemes that focus on mid- and small-cap scrips can adopt a ‘buy and hold strategy’ as there is no continuous inflow or outflow,” says Kunal Valia, director, Credit Suisse Securities India. 

In 2013, when equity markets were at low on the back of policy paralysis, and little government- and private-sector spending on the back of corruption allegations at the time, some fund houses saw an opportunity.

The anticipation was that a new government in the Centre would revive the economy. True to expectations, the Nifty50 went up 29% between June 2013 and 16 May 2014, the day election results were announced.

Most of the schemes launched until then did well. ICICI Prudential Value Fund – Series1 (launched in October 2013) and ICICI Prudential Value Fund – Series2 (launched in November 2013) have returned around 22% and 23% respectively over the past 3-years and are in the top quintile of multi-cap funds. But getting the timing right was not the only factor in their favour. “The outperformance is mainly on account of skill of the fund manager, ability...to identify under-researched and under-owned ideas...and no pressure due to inflows or outflows,” says Valia. 

Some closed-end funds, particularly the earliest ones, aimed to pay dividends as regularly as possible. “During 2007-09, equity markets went up and then crashed. People made profit, theoretically, but never encashed them. The ensuing fall eroded their profits. So when we launched closed-end funds, we decided to book profits and pay dividends as much as we can,” said S. Naren, chief investment officer, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co. Ltd. 

Did they live up to their promise? A Mint study of open-ended and closed-end funds between 2013 and now shows that many of the closed-end funds did pay dividends (see table). If you rank the funds in terms of the dividends paid between 2013 and now, top 13 out of the 20 funds were closed-end. 

Manish Gadhvi, head (Mumbai operations), NJ India Invest Pvt. Ltd, one of India’s largest retail mutual fund distributors, says that closed-end funds makes sense if picked well. “Retail investors tend to misbehave on both sides of volatility—upside and downside. If, say within 6 month, markets go up by 30-35%, they redeem. If markets drop by 25%, they redeem. But if you follow a micro-cap stock-picking strategy, your stocks can go up by 200-300%. Hence, closed-end funds aren’t totally a lost cause,” he says. 

A big drawback in closed-end funds is the absence of track record, says a senior research analyst at a bank, whose bank had launched some of these closed-end funds, though he claims to have not recommended any: “There is no fundamental research on how this fund has performed. There is no evidence of its performance because there is no past performance.”

It’s too soon to decide whether the current breed of closed-end funds have worked out or not, as the evidence so far is patchy. It’s safer to stick with the tried and tested open-ended funds, which come with a track record—unless a closed-end fund offers something that no existing fund offers. 

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First Published:15 Mar 2017, 09:31 AM IST
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