Franklin India Prima Fund (Regular)
![]()
AUM `985.90 ............................................................................................... AS ON MARCH 31, 2014
NAV `405.43 ..................................................................................................AS ON APRIL 25, 2014
Launched in the year 1993, Franklin India Prima Fund (Regular) has seen all the phases of the Indian markets post liberalisation. It is the consistent performance of the fund that has played its part in generating investors’ interest in the fund. Th e return generated by the fund speaks for itself. Let us dig deeper and see why this mutual fund scheme can be an ideal candidate for ones portfolio. Starting with returns generated by the fund, `1000 put in every month for the last three years ending March 31, 2014; the value of total investment of `36000 would till now generated a sum of `50801, showing absolute return of 41 per cent.
Managed by R Janakiraman (since February 2008) and Roshi Jain (since March 2014), the fund has seen a consistent rise since 2011 and has grown at a CAGR of 12 per cent for the last four years and stands at `986 crore at the end of March 31, 2014. It would invest in small and medium size businesses with good long term potential and is available at cheap valuations. In the last one year the fund has generated return of 30.95 per cent, while its benchmark CNX 500 has generated return of 15.16 per cent. Th e outperformance stands at a staggering 1579 basis points. Th e stocks that have generated major gains for the fund includes names like Finolex Cables, Yes Bank, Gujarat Pipavav Port,
Greaves Cotton and Voltas to name a few. The investment of the fund is well diversifi ed among the mid-cap and small-cap space and comprises of 84 per cent of the total portfolio. Top five sectors comprise more than 60.03 per cent of the portfolio in the fund.
If we look at the portfolio of the fund, then it is clearly visible that the fund manager has been wise in choosing those companies which have a strong management, backed by better cash flow and companies where the income visibility is clear going forward. Th e fund also believes in holding companies for longer term perspective which has paid in a better way in the long run.
The fund works with the primary objective of capital appreciation and secondary objective is income generation by focussing on mid and small cap industry. At present, the fund has invested around 93.91 per cent in equities, while 6.09 per cent the fund is holding in cash. At present the fund has nil exposure in debt at present.
The improved performance of the fund has not come at the cost of risk taking. This statement can be substantiated by looking at the sharp ratio which stands at 0.46. The alpha of the fund stands at 7.92, which represents the excess return that the fund has generated at a given level of risk.
The fund can be an ideal candidate to form a part of the mutual fund portfolio of risk taking as-well-as risk adverse investors. However, SIP route for investors seems to be the best way to invest in this fund scheme.