What are focused funds?
Focused funds are those equity mutual funds that follow a concentrated investment strategy focusing on a limited number of stocks. According to SEBI guidelines, focused funds can invest in up to 30 stocks with at least 65% of their fund portfolio invested in equities and equity-related instruments. SEBI guidelines also require these funds to mention their intended market capitalization exposure viz multi-cap, large-cap, small-cap or midcap.
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Why invest in focused funds
- Aims to identify and invest in high conviction stocks
- Higher allocation to high conviction stocks usually delivers over the long term
- The concentrated approach reduces the opportunity cost of under-allocating to winning investment ideas
- Concentrated portfolios reduce the risk of over-diversification
- Higher allocation to winning stocks significantly changes the performance of the overall fund portfolio performance
- Select companies in a growing economy often exhibit higher earnings and growth irrespective of the business cycle
Also Read:- How to Balance your Risk v/s Return in Mutual Fund Investments
Table of Best 10 Focused Funds
Fund Name | Returns (%) | ||||
1 year | 3 year | 5 year | 7 year | 10 year | |
IIFL Focused Equity Fund | 54.13 | 20.38 | 17.64 | — | — |
IDFC Focused Equity Fund | 30.82 | 7.75 | 12.53 | 10.22 | 11.08 |
Mirae Asset Focused Fund | 53.72 | — | — | — | — |
L&T Focused Equity Fund | 36.42 | — | — | — | — |
Principal Focused Multicap Fund | 53.04 | 16.72 | 15.27 | 13.68 | 15.26 |
ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund | 46.37 | 13.60 | 12.92 | 11.69 | 14.30 |
Motilal Oswal Focused 25 Fund | 40.63 | 13.42 | 14.05 | 13.78 | — |
Axis Focused 25 Fund | 47.65 | 13.71 | 17.33 | 16.21 | — |
SBI Focused Equity Fund | 48.42 | 16.37 | 16.17 | 15.92 | 17.64 |
Sundaram Select Focus Fund | 42.37 | 12.70 | 14.80 | 11.83 | 12.80 |
(Data as on August 20, 2021: Source: Value Research)
Investment Strategies of Focused Funds
1. IIFL Focused Equity Fund
- Follows a bottom-up sector-agnostic strategy for stock selection
- Uses a multi-cap strategy with a large-cap bias
- Follows an SCDV (Secular, Cyclical, Defensives and Value Trap) investment framework to generate superior risk-adjusted returns
- Prefers companies with strong earnings growth, high ROCE (Return on Capital Employed), ROE (Return on Equity), cash-generating capital-light business model and attractive valuations
Also Read: Best Large Cap Funds
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2. IDFC Focused Equity Fund
- Retains the flexibility to invest across market cap and sectors
- Fund portfolio reflects the fund manager’s conviction rather than hugging the benchmark
- Fund portfolio consists of a mix of core and tactical ideas
- Core portfolio of the fund consists of growth-oriented and high-quality businesses
- Growth-oriented companies refer to scalable businesses participating in a large opportunity size with visibility of growth is equally
- High-quality companies refer to those generating superior Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), having low capital intensity and generating healthy operating cash flows
- Tactical portfolio of the fund consists of turnaround companies
- Prefers companies with quality management following strong corporate governance, implementing efficient capital allocation and focusing on value creation for shareholders
Also Read:-Which is the Right Time to Invest in Mutual Funds?
3. Mirae Asset Focused Fund
- Follows a multi-cap strategy focusing on just high-quality stocks
- Stock selection aimed at building a portfolio of strong growth companies reflecting the fund house’s most attractive investment ideas
- Avoids concentration risk and liquidity risk during the stock selection
- Uses Quantitative Screening to evaluate companies based on management quality, earnings growth, return on investment, size, liquidity and benchmark
- Uses extensive ‘primary research’ through management meetings, detailed financial models and market intelligence with the help of dealer checks, industry experts, plant visits and broker support
- Portfolio selection is centred on buying quality businesses for up to a reasonable price and holding the same over an extended period
Also Read: Top 10 Performing Mid Cap Mutual Funds
4. L&T Focused Equity Fund
- Follows a sector-agnostic and market-cap agnostic approach for stock selection
- Aims at delivering higher alpha albeit with the higher volatility
- Invests in companies having good business with quality management at reasonable valuation
- Uses bottom-up stock selection using the fund house’s proprietary G.E.M (Generation of Ideas, Evaluation of companies and Manufacturing and Monitoring of portfolios) investment approach
- The stock-selection process is backed by strong investment process and risk management team
5. Principal Focused Multicap Fund
- Maintains a large-cap bias despite its multi-cap approach
- Large-cap bias allows it to be more synchronized with economic growth
- Maintains a well-diversified portfolio with exposure to 16-17 industries
- Actively manages a portfolio with low index hugging
- Invest in high-quality companies with a proven track record and economic moat
- Portfolio selection backed by detailed research
- Follows GARP (Growth At Reasonable Price) investment policy to select companies showing consistent earnings growth and available at reasonable valuations
Also Read: Invest in Top Multicap Mutual Funds in India
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6. ICICI Prudential Focused Equity Fund
- Invests across market capitalization and sectors
- Follows a bottom-up approach for stock selection
- Prefers companies with robust financials, sustained competitive advantages and above-average profitability
- Portfolio allocation is based on a tactical basis rather than any predetermined ratio
- Maintains overweight stance on select high conviction sectors and themes expected to outperform in the current economic cycle
7. Motilal Oswal Focused 25 Fund
- Invests in up to 25 companies with long term growth potential and sustainable competitive advantages
- Invests in high conviction stocks with improved risk-adjusted return characteristics
- Aims at optimal diversification while investing at least 65% of the fund portfolio in large-cap stocks
- Has capped the exposure of a single stock at 10% of NAV in a single stock
Also Read: Best 10 Small Cap Mutual Funds to Invest in 2021
8. Axis Focused 25 Fund
- Invests in up to 25 best high conviction ideas while remaining diversified
- Follows pure bottom-up approach
- Remains invested in companies throughout their business cycles without getting affected by short term market volatility
- Prefers lower beta and standard deviation with tight tracking error as compared to the benchmark
- Follows concentrated focus on companies delivering ROCE/ROE over the medium to long term on a sustained basis
- Typically avoids PSUs
- Core portfolio consists of 50-60% of the fund portfolio with an investment horizon of 3-5 years
- Core portfolio consists of companies generating reasonable returns with low volatility
- The alpha portfolio consists of 20-25% of the fund portfolio with an investment horizon of 18-24 months
- The alpha portfolio consists of companies having cyclical tailwinds
- Allocation for emerging themes in the fund portfolio ranges 20-25% of the fund portfolio with an investment horizon of more than 5 years
- Emerging themes consists of companies having the ability to generate break-out growth in the future
Also Read: 10 Best Large & Mid Cap Mutual Funds to Invest in 2021
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9. SBI Focused Equity Fund
- Invests at least 65% of the fund portfolio in equity and equity-related instruments across market capitalization and sectors
- Retains the flexibility to invest up to 35% of the fund in debt and/or money market instruments
- Aims to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing in a concentrated equity portfolio
- Follows a bottom-up approach for stock-picking
10. Sundaram Select Focus Fund
- Maintains a large-cap concentrated fund portfolio with exposure to no more than 30 companies across sectors
- Aims to outperform diversified large-cap funds through concentrated high conviction and high allocation strategy
- Aims to deliver steady and consistent returns over time with limited volatility and GARP (Growth at Reasonable Price) bias
- Follows a bottom-up stock selection approach based on in-house research and fund managers’ conviction
- Usually focuses on around 3-4 investment themes
Also Check:-SEBI Rules on Exit Load for Liquid Funds
Who should invest in Focused Funds?
- Those aiming for wealth creation with investment horizons of at least 3-5 years
- Staying invested in the long term to increase the possibility of generating positive returns
- Those with aggressive risk profile wishing to benefit from equity investing through a focused portfolio consisting of high conviction bets