ICICI MF ends 2 smallcap schemes

New Delhi: The country’s largest fund house ICICI Prudential AMC will soon wind up two small-cap schemes run by its portfolio management division as “too much money is chasing very few quality” stocks. The money invested in these schemes will be returned to investors, according to the company.

The portfolio management services (PMS) division manages money of high networth individuals. “We are currently in the process of winding up ICICI Prudential’s PMS schemes — PIPE and Smallcap Portfolio Series I,” Nimesh Shah, who is the managing director and CEO of the fund house said in a statement.

“We are in a situation where the valuations are very rich and too much money is chasing very few quality small-cap companies,” he added. Currently, ICICI Prudential PMS manages investors’ funds to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore, while overall the fund house has an assets under management of over Rs 2.93 lakh crore.

“Keeping the client interest in mind, we would be returning entire capital and profits to investors,” he added.

Alternately, the fund house has recommended investors to invest in ICICI Prudential’s Wellness PMS which is a play on healthcare and allied sectors as a theme. Besides, it said that Flexi-cap could be another option given the investments will be spread across market capitalisation. “Our decision of returning money to investors is in line with ICICI Prudential AMC’s philosophy that ‘return of capital is also important along with return on capital’,” he said.

This is not the first time wherein the AMC has taken this kind of step. “Infact, this is the third product after ICICI Prudential PMS Wellness Portfolio (launched in March 2013) and ICICI Prudential PMS Exports Portfolio (launched in June 2013) where we have booked profits and distributed capital with profits,” Mr Shah said.