The wait is over. Morningstar is pleased to announce the winners of Morningstar Fund Awards 2021 across seven categories – fund categories (four) and fund house (three).
WINNERS OF BEST FUND CATEGORY AWARDS
Best Large Cap Fund Winner: Canara Robeco Bluechip Equity
- Star Rating: 5 stars
- Analyst Rating: N.A.
- Fund Managers: Shridatta Bhandwaldar and Sanjay Bembalkar
- Inception Date: August 2010
- Return: 55.66% (1 year), 17.28% (3 year), 17.58 (5 year), 12.73 (since inception)
- Analyst View: N.A.
“Consistent focus of the fund on good quality businesses with superior earnings growth as against sector and markets in general has helped the fund deliver medium to long term outperformance. The fund has also consistently focused on downside protection by avoiding poor balance sheets and management. In terms of sectors, private financials, domestic pharma, consumers(ex-auto) and gas value chain has helped the fund over last 3-5 years.” - Shridatta Bhandwaldar, Fund Manager, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund.
Nominees
Best Mid Cap Fund Winner: Axis Mid Cap Fund
- Star Rating: 5 stars
- Analyst Rating: Neutral
- Fund Managers: Shreyash Devalkar and Hitesh Das
- Inception Date: February 2011
- Return: 55.32% (1 year), 19.15 (3 year), 20.10 (5 year), 18.55% (since inception)
- Analyst View
“In line with our philosophy of investing in quality and growth, the fund endeavours to choose such companies. Market has consistently rewarded this philosophy over the long term. Hence the fund has done well. In this fund, we intend to invest in sector leaders in mid-sized markets, niche companies operating larger sectors and consolidation themes. In the last one year, many companies in this segment have shown resilience and focus on growth, cash flows and quality balance sheet. The opportunity set has definitely improved.” - Shreyash Devalkar, Senior Fund Manager – Equity, Axis AMC.
Nominees
Best Medium to Long Duration Fund Winner: SBI Magnum Income Fund
- Star Rating: 5 stars
- Analyst Rating: Neutral
- Average Credit Quality: AA
- Fund Manager: Dinesh Ahuja
- Inception Date: November 1998
- Return: 8.41% (1 year), 8.81% (3 year), 8.90% (5 year), 7.86% (since inception)
- Analyst view
“The strategy has been to construct a portfolio with a focus on both accrual and duration. Around 60% of the fund is intended to be deployed in securities with a minimum rating of AA- predominantly with 2 – 5-year residual maturity and the remaining 40% adds to duration depending on our overall interest rate view. Thus, the portfolio is balanced with high credit quality papers while maintaining Macaulay duration between 4 – 7 years. This strategy has worked well for the fund while the extensive research in selecting the right credit and the right fundamental calls on interest rates have assisted in delivering consistent superior risk adjusted returns for the investors. The focus would continue on analysing the direction of interest rates through fundamental research and identifying and investing in high credit quality instruments.” – Dinesh Ahuja, Fund Manager, SBI Mutual Fund.
Nominees
Best Short Term Fund Winner: HDFC Short Term Debt
- Star Rating: 5 stars
- Analyst Rating: Silver
- Average Credit Quality: AAA
- Fund Managers: Anil Bamboli and Anand Laddha
- Inception Date: June 2010
- Return: 8.86% (1 year), 8.47% (3 year), 8.23% (5 year), 8.67% (since inception)
- Analyst View
“The consistent track record of the fund is a result of many factors. Firstly, we have been adjusting the duration of the fund based on our assessment of the prevailing market conditions. Our call of maintaining duration at relatively higher levels played out well as the scheme benefitted from the fall in yields. Secondly, our credit selection process also helped in avoiding most of the credit stress faced in past couple of years. Further, strategy of higher proportion of corporate bonds, especially AAA-rated, as compared to G-secs paid off in the current year as spreads of AAA rated bonds compressed significantly. We shall endeavour to be conservative while taking credit risk even if that means settling for lower yields. – Anil Bamboli, Senior Fund Manager - Fixed Income, HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd.
Nominees
(The analyst ratings mentioned above are for regular plans. The ratings for direct plans may differ.) Trailing Return as on March 16, 2021.
WINNERS OF BEST FUND HOUSE AWARDS
Best Fund House (Equity) Winner: Canara Robeco AMC
“Our belief in and adherence to our investment philosophy, a team of brilliant investment professionals who collaborate and support each other, and a sound investment process followed with discipline has held us in good stead. These ingredients have helped Canara Robeco deliver consistent performance to our investors. I’m especially proud of how the team navigated the uncertainty and volatility of 2020.” - Nimesh Chandan, Head – Investments, Equities, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund.
Nominees:
- Kotak Mahindra AMC
- UTI AMC
Best Fund House (Debt) Winner: ICICI Prudential AMC
“At ICICI Prudential AMC, debt investments are governed by the Debt Investment Policy of SLR (Safety, Liquidity & Return). When it comes to the credit side, we have an in-house risk management team that is independent of the investment team and without any return targets. The process-oriented approach has been instrumental in ensuring that we were not a part any of the debt papers which ran into challenging times, all of which culminates in delivering superior investment experience over the years.” - Rahul Goswami, CIO - Fixed Income, ICICI Prudential AMC.
Nominees:
- Kotak Mahindra AMC
- HDFC AMC
Best Fund House (Overall) Winner: Kotak Mahindra AMC
“Kotak debt funds follow a simple strategy of SLR. S stands for Safety. We believe that return of principal is more important than return on principal. L stands for Liquidity. We believe in maintaining adequate liquidity as most of our funds being open ended provide daily redemption. R stands for Return. We aim to optimise return per unit of risk taken. Discipline of focussing on SLR has helped us generate consistent outperformance over peers.
Kotak equity funds follow a simple strategy of BMV. B stands for Business. We want to invest in businesses which generate higher return than the cost of capital over business cycles. M stands for Management. We want to invest with managers who respect minority shareholders and good governance. They should also have vision and execution capabilities for their businesses. V stands for Valuation. We want to invest in businesses that are available at Fair Valuation. Discipline of focussing on long term performance through BMV model has helped Kotak equity funds deliver outperformance over benchmark index and peers.” - Nilesh Shah, Managing Director, Kotak Mutual Fund.
Nominees:
- ICICI Prudential AMC
- Canara Robeco AMC
Congratulations to all the winners as well as the nominees.
