ICICI Mutual Fund becomes the Largest in India

Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund (Pru ICICI) has emerged as the largest mutual fund in the country. It has record assets under management (AUM) of Rs 32151 crore as per figures released by the association of mutual funds of India (AMFI).

UTI Mutual Fund which is India's oldest, is no more India's largest. It had Rs 30500 crore of assets under management.

After UTI, came Reliance Mutual Fund on the list, with AUM of nearly Rs 27900 crore as against, Rs 24669 crore in April.

The total AUM of all 29 mutual fund AMCs rose to Rs 276342.39 crore, excluding assets worth Rs 1535.91 crore held under the FoFs.

Next was HDFC MF with AUM of 23649.75 crore, followed by Franklin Templeton MF at the fifth rank with AUM of Rs 22,359.90 crore excluding the assets under FoFs.

Mr. Pankaj Razdan, Managing Director, Prudential ICICI AMC said, “At Pru ICICI, our focus has always been the customer and our actions are always driven by our commitment to maximize customer benefit. In pursuit of ensuring utmost consumer satisfaction, we have relentlessly sought to strike a right mix in terms of people, processes and technology. It is encouraging for us to see our efforts bear fruit by way of consistency in our growth track record and recognition of our performance. We will continue our endeavor to offer our investors quality service, innovative investment solutions, convenience in transaction and consistency in product performance."

Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and UK-based Prudential Plc. formed in 1998. Starting with an AUM base of Rs. 160 crore in May 1998, the company has successfully managed to grow its assets by around 200 times to Rs. 32151 crore (as on May 31, 2006).

Although Pru ICICI is now India's largest fund, it still needs to work on innovative marketing to remain in that position as competition heats up.