Axis Mutual Fund is launching an NFO, which is open for subscription from May 10th, 2021 to May 21st, 2021.

Investment Objective: The investment objective of the scheme is to provide capital appreciation by investing in an underlying fund of international equity and equity related instruments.

Investment Strategy: The scheme is a fund of fund which will invest in units of Schroder International Selection Fund Global Disruption, an international equity fund that aims to provide capital growth by investing in innovative companies worldwide which benefit from disruption of industries through tech and automation.

Fund Manager: Mr. Hitesh Das, Mr. R. Sivakumar

Benchmark: MSCI ACWI NR

Fund Management Process:

  1. The fund will pick stocks across industries which have disruption potential like fintech, digitalisation, e-commerce, healthcare, communications and automation
  2. The fund looks at the following kinds of companies as part of their process
  • Companies that are the source or the cause of innovation
  • Companies that can help in enabling or facilitating the change
  • Companies that can benefit from adapting to new innovations
  • Value bets in companies that will be negatively affected by the change or lose market share

3.   The fund holds maximum exposure to US based companies at around 60% and holds around 35-40% of tech and IT stocks followed by communication and healthcare themes.

Fund Track Record

Though NFO's do not usually have a track record, since this is a fund of fund, we can track the past performance of the underlying fund. The fund was incepted in 2018 and has significantly beaten the benchmark since inception

Fund performance vs benchmark since inception

Based on our analysis, we have observed the following pros and cons

Pros:

  1. Global exposure and diversification
  2. Access to emerging future themes across the globe
  3. Strong track record of underlying fund

Cons:

  1. Market valuations of global tech stocks are on the higher side
  2. Higher than equity taxation. Fund of funds are taxed the same way as debt funds.

Over the last few years, majority of stock market gains have come from tech stocks and disruptive themes. While this may be a good long-term investment, with current market valuations on the higher side, investors must be cautious while investing high amounts. SIP's or STP's are recommended over lumpsum investments in such funds. A small allocation to global funds can be suitable for moderate to aggressive equity investors who are looking to stay invested over 5 years.

It is of utmost importance that the fund should be discussed with your financial advisor and then ascertain whether it is suitable to invest. Always read the scheme documents fully before investing.