428 fund managers handle ₹39.62 lakh cr mutual funds as of Jan 2023; only 42 are women
2 min read . Updated: 06 Mar 2023, 05:49 PM IST
Premium- As per Morningstar report, when compared with last year, the total count of women fund managers has increased from 32 last year to 42 now. Interestingly, the total number of fund managers also saw a healthy increase this year; up from 399 managers seen last year.
Male dominance in mutual fund industry continues in India by a greater margin. As per the latest report from Morningstar, as of January 31, 2023, the total mutual fund industry's assets come around approximately ₹39.62 lakh crore. This total is managed by 428 fund managers across all fund houses, of which, only 42 are women. There has been a consistent rise in the number of women fund managers however at a slower pace. These women are managing funds either as primary or secondary managers.
Morningstar has been releasing an annual report on women fund managers since 2017. This would be its seventh edition report.
As per its report, when compared with last year, the total count of women fund managers has increased from 32 last year to 42 now. Interestingly, the total number of fund managers also saw a healthy increase this year; up from 399 managers seen last year.
These 42 women fund managers were spread across 24 fund houses -- of which -- five fund houses had three or more women fund managers; six fund houses had two women fund managers while 13 fund houses had at least one-woman fund manager.
However, with a meagre 9.81% representation, women still remain drastically underrepresented among the ranks of mutual fund managers.
Notably, the total open- and close-end assets managed by women fund managers is approximately ₹4.43 lakh crore, which is 11.19% of the total mutual fund assets.
The report said, over the last few years, there has been a marginal but steady decline in percentage terms with respect to the assets managed by women. Last year, women managed 11.98% of the total mutual fund assets.
Of the total open- and close-end fund assets managed by women, the largest assets managed belonged to the equity/growth asset class, which represented 32.4% of the assets, -- which was followed closely by the allocation asset class with 29.3%.
Morningstar's report said, "in terms of the quantum of assets, since the time we started publishing this report, every year, we
witnessed a rise in the total assets managed by women. That trend changed this time around, as, for the first time, the total assets managed by women as of January 2023 fell in comparison with the previous year. This dip could be attributed to two prominent names that exited the mutual fund management industry last year— Swati Kulkarni (UTI MF) and Lakshmi Iyer (Kotak MF)—both of whom managed a fair amount of corpus among themselves."
While the industry saw the exit of two prominent women fund managers last year, on a positive note, the report highlighted that the total count of women fund managers rose compared with last year. When Morningstar first came out with the report, there were only 18 women fund managers, and this number has only been increasing since then.
Also, the funds managed by women managers have seen a significant rise. Morningstar's report said, "our reports show that of the total open-end assets managed by women fund managers, 82% of the AUM outperformed the peer group average on a one-year basis, 93% of the AUM outperformed on a three-year basis, and 99% of the AUM outperformed on a five-year basis—a feat truly worth commending."
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