How a Japanese makeover is driving Nippon India MF's growth, rankings

livemint.com:

Sikka, now the executive director and chief executive officer,has been at the helm of Nippon India MF since 2009. Some of Nippon India's MF schemes are very popular among investors. These include its small-cap mutual fund, which is ranked first in terms of assets under management (AUM).

Earlier, the AMC itself topped the AUM rankings in the country but has slipped to fourth place over the years. It currently has ₹4.31 trillion in AUM held under various schemes. Two decades ago, though, the company had in its earlier avataar as Reliance MF plumbed the depths.

It has since made a recovery after the 2003 restructuring that brought in Sikka and other banking greats such as Amitabh Chaturvedi. Reliance MF started in 1995 as a joint venture between Reliance Capital, founded by the late Dhirubhai Ambani, and later led by his son and industrialist Anil Ambani. It was around this time that private MFs in the country began to offer Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) for investors.

Reliance MF, too, had its share of MF schemes via debt, equity, hybrid, and retirement funds and offered SIPs for these schemes. The AMC, said some experts tracking the industry over the years, were initially focused on corporate clients and not retail money. Yet, it was unable to exploit the market and consolidate its growth.

The decline started soon after. It was in 2003, soon after the dotcom bubble burst, that Reliance MF decided to revamp its MF business. By that time, the AMC had already slipped to the bottom of the rankings.