Quant Mutual Fund in midst of SEBI investigation holds substantial cash reserves
As per an analysis, in May Quant Mutual Fund was sitting with around Rs. 9,355 crore cash pile, who is currently under SEBI’s investigation for a suspected front-running case. The cash pile was around 12.41% of the total AUM. The fund house’s equity AUM total was Rs. 66,052 crore.
21 equity mutual fund schemes are with the fund house. Four schemes out of these 21 Schemes, had more than Rs 1,000 crore cash in the portfolio. The highest cash allocation of Rs.1,607.37 crore was in the Quant Small Cap Fund. As of May 2024, the small-cap plans have a total equity AUM of Rs. 19,635 crore.
From the fund house, Quant Flexi Cap Fund was the next equity fund with maximum cash. In its portfolio, the flexi cap fund had cash of Rs. 1,411 crore and an equity AUM of Rs. 4,860 crore.
Quant Active Fund’s portfolio totalled Rs. 1,055 crore. As of May 31, 2024, the equity AUM of the scheme is Rs. 9,148 crore. In May, Quant Mid Cap Fund had Rs. 1,026 crore of cash in its portfolio. The scheme’s equity AUM is Rs. 6,926 crore.
In May, Quant Quantamental Fund and Quant Momentum Fund has Rs. 660 crore and Rs. 664 crore cash in their portfolio respectively.
Four sectoral/thematic funds had Rs.100 crore cash allocation. Quant PSU Fund and Quant BFSI Fund had cash piles at Rs. 164 crore and Rs. 128 crore respectively. As of May 2024, Quant Commodities Fund and Quant Teck Fund have cash portfolios of Rs. 118 crore and Rs. 102 crore respectively.
Another 4 thematic/ sectoral funds had a Rs.100 crore cash allocation. Rs. 94 crore and Rs. 78 crore cash had with Quant Manufacturing Fund and Quant Consumption Fund respectively.
In May both funds, Quant ESG Equity and Quant Healthcare had the lowest allocation of cash worth Rs. 31.87 crore and Rs. 10.15 crore respectively.
Fund managers are permitted to keep certain amounts of their portfolio in cash to cover redemptions or to make investments when a market opportunity arises.
The NAV of these funds have declined by a marginal rate after SEBI’s investigation on First-running charges hit the Quant Mutual Fund.
