mutual fund investment
ICICI Prudential Value Fund has become one of the most popular funds in the Indian mutual fund industry, be it value segment or any other category. It is a true value fund and is counted among the largest value funds, which has been consistently successful in identifying shares of companies whose prices are trading below their true value. The fund’s focus is on identifying strong companies that have sustainable business models, improving fundamentals and credible management teams, but whose shares are temporarily available at misprices. Such a strategy has so far kept the funds from getting trapped.
This is how we got huge returns
If Rs 10 lakh had been invested in this fund in the beginning i.e. on 16 August 2004, then by 31 October 2025 this amount would have become approximately Rs 4.85 crore. This is a very good CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 20.1%. If the same amount was invested in Nifty 50 TRI during the same period, it would have become approximately Rs 2.1 crore.
Excellent profit in SIP also
The SIP returns of the fund have also been quite impressive. From the beginning till now, a SIP of Rs 10,000 every month would have resulted in a total investment of Rs 25.5 lakh, which would have become Rs 2.4 crore by October 31, 2025. At the same time, the value of the same SIP investment in the benchmark would have been Rs 1.2 crore. Especially if we talk about the performance of last one year and three years, the fund has outperformed its benchmark by 2% and 4.8% respectively. For this reason, this fund remains among the top performers in the value category in most of the time periods.
How did you get such a huge return?
The fund has complete freedom to explore opportunities across different categories of the market (large, mid and small cap) and does not follow benchmarks in sector allocation. Currently, the fund has more investments in software, pharma-healthcare and banking sectors and less bets on cement, internet, retail and metals. As of October 31, 2021, 87% of the fund’s portfolio is in large caps and the rest is spread across mid and small cap stocks. At a time when domestic markets are continuously moving upwards, the question that comes before investors is whether it is right to invest in value funds now? According to Sankaran Naren, fund manager and ED and CIO, ICICI Prudential Value Fund, when valuations are high and indices around the world are near their historical highs, investors can adopt two methods.
Those who are patient get more benefits
First, follow the asset allocation and second, choose the option of value investing. Because even in a bullish market, there are some sectors or shares which go through a period of weak performance, and this time provides better investment opportunities. Also, there are some companies or sectors which receive less attention, and there, investors with patience can get a good entry point. In this context, he believes that in the current market environment the quality theme appears to provide comparatively better value. Naren is an experienced manager who is considered an expert in value investing and his name is counted among the leading value investors of the country.