Axis MF adds most folios in FY21, ICICI Pru MF next; HDFC MF loses clients

MUMBAI: Axis Mutual Fund beat the top three mutual funds in the industry to record the largest addition of new fund folios in the financial year ended March 2021, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) website showed.

Axis MF added 20,42,150 new fund folios during the financial year, followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, which added 20,42,016 new fund folios.

ICICI Prudential MF was a comfortable leader when it came to the Big Three, which include HDFC Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund. With the addition of over 20 lakh new folios, ICICI Prudential MF retained its leadership position. Its total folios stood at 1.14 crore.

“We believe the robust growth in MF folio count seen over the last financial year was largely a result of our relentless digital focus, increased investor awareness levels, and our ability to deliver better investment experience across market cycles and asset classes with zero defaults over the past two decades. All of these factors have rendered investor confidence which translated into improved customer acquisitions," said Nimesh Shah, MD and CEO, ICICI Prudential AMC.

HDFC Mutual Fund lost unitholders during the financial year, reflecting concerns raised by many over the mutual fund's underperformance under its current Chief Investment Officer Prashant Jain.

HDFC Mutual Fund lost 4,63,708 folios during the financial year.

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, which spent the entire year in controversy over its abrupt closure of six debt schemes and the suspicious actions of some of the key figures behind its management, lost 4,75,686 folios during the year.

Aditya Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund lost 1,20,831 folios during the year. Mirae Asset added 8,26,392 new folios in 2020-21.

During the year, the mutual fund industry added 79.97 lakh new folios.