LIC Mutual Fund Launches Manufacturing Fund with a Focus on India’s Growing Industrial Sector
LIC Mutual Fund has launched an open-ended equity scheme, the Manufacturing Fund, with the potential to capture growth prospects within India’s manufacturing sector. LIC Mutual Fund aims to grow to an AUM of Rs.60,000 crore by the end of the current financial year itself an ambitious expansion plan.
A new fund offer is available for subscription till 4th October, and units will be allotted on 11th October. The fund is benchmarked against the Nifty India Manufacturing Index Total Return Index, offering diversified companies based across various manufacturing industries sectors including automobile, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, metals, shipbuilding, and petroleum products.
The main objective of the fund focuses on wealth creation by identifying companies with tremendous growth potential within the same theme of manufacturing. LIC Mutual Fund is targeting a 25% growth rate with plans to push its AUM to INR 1 lakh crore by FY 2025-26. A strong performance track record of the fund, which has delivered 75-80% over the past year and 35-45% over two to three years is witnessed through the Infrastructure Fund.
Sector Focus
The Manufacturing Fund would cover most sectors in the top-down approach and follow the bottom-up approach to stock selection. The areas of focus would be capital goods, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. Investors can begin investing in the fund with a minimum SIP of Rs.300 per day or Rs.1,000 per month. Immediately after NFO, the thresholds have been brought down to Rs.100 daily and Rs.200 monthly, thus enabling even the smallest investor to join in. The lower limit for lump sum investments stands at Rs.5,000, whereas the upper limit has no mark.
The company has launched this product with which it entered the market, bringing it abreast of 11 other manufacturing funds in the league that collectively manage an AUM of Rs.34,700 crore. That will be a bold step towards larger growth objectives on the part of LIC Mutual Fund even if the manufacturing fund category is relatively smaller than large-cap or mid-cap.
