ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund Direct Growth Performance Review

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund Direct Growth Review

ICICI fund house is one the leading AMC in India. They introduced a large cap fund under the name ICICIC Prudential Bluechip Fund Direct Growth on January 1st, 2013.

This fund is compared with the benchmark Nifty 100 Index TRI, and Nifty 50 Index TRI, and holds an AUM of Rs. 29,981.07 crores.

Investing 1 lakh in 2013 would have resulted in 3.5 times growth.

Investing in this fund requires a minimum lump sum of Rs. 5000, and a minimum monthly SIP of Rs. 100.

ICICI prudential bluechip fund comprise of 4 plans,

  • Direct Growth Plan (We speak about this plan in this article)
  • Regular Growth
  • Direct – IDCW (Dividend Plan)
  • Regular – IDCW (Dividend Plan)

As a reader, you will find all the details about this fund that you need to know before investing.

ICICI Prudential Fund Direct Growth NAV:

The current NAV of ICICI prudential Fund Direct Growth is 71.05 (as on August 5, 2022).

The NAV of other plans of the same fund are,

  • Regular Growth – 65.81
  • IDCW – Regular Plan – 25.12
  • IDCW – Direct Plan – 43.24

During the NFO period, all  plans under ICICI Blue chip fund had a NAV of Rs. 10. 

The direct Growth plan has provided better returns and performance than the fund’s other plans.

Choosing a direct fund is one of the best options if you can manage the risk appetite of the fund.

Regular plans are best if you need a professional to manage your fund.

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund Direct Growth Performance:

ICICI bluechip fund is an open-ended scheme that invests in large-cap companies (Top 100 companies of Indian share market per market capital).

This fund’s objective was to outperform the benchmark (Nifty 100 TRI) with comparatively low risk.

The fund has performed at a CAGR of 15.02% per annum since inception vs. 17.94 to Nifty 100 TRI (benchmark). The category average has performed at a CAGR of 13.76%.

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund Direct Growth Performance
Image from Moneycontrol.com

ICICI bluechip fund has outperformed its category average in 3 and 5 years of performance in all the available plan structures.

The performance of Nifty 100 TRI has over-performed than the fund when analyzed since its inception

Even the fund has grown 18.73% higher than the Nifty 50 index & -16.28% compared to the Nifty 100 since its inception (January 2013).

Here is a quick snapshot of the fund’s performance compared with the benchmark and category average.

ICICI Prudential Blue Chip Fund Direct Growth, Bench Mark and Category Average

This fund is recommended for long-term outperformance if you want to outperform the category average or benchmark over the medium or long-term.

The 2 years performance of the  fund is 1.35% higher than the benchmark and 2.68% higher than the category average.

ICCCI blue chip fund direct growth has outperformed in 3 years with a return of CAGR of 18.9% vs 13.9%, and 16.73% by category average, and benchmark respectively

In 5 years of performance, the ICICI prudential bluechip fund direct growth plan has performed similar as the benchmark and 1.04% higher than the category average.

In the last 9 years the  fund has yielded 2.05% higher performance than the benchmark and 1.26% higher than the category average.

The same fund has underperformed than benchmark and category for the last 1 year.

Once again, the performance calibration proves that this fund should be invested if your goal is mid or long-term to outperform category average or benchmark.

Fundamental Analysis Ratios:

P/B – 2.85

P/E – 20

ICICI Bluechip Fund Portfolio:

The portfolio of this scheme includes equity (92.6%), Debt (0.3%), and Cash (7.1%).

Equity Holdings(92.6% of total portfolio):

This fund holds 74 stocks, and are divided as follows

  • Large Cap Investments – 77.65%
  • Mid Cap Investments – 6.53%
  • Small Cap Investments – 0.36%
  • Others – 9.88%

Debt & Cash Holdings (7.4% of total Portfolio):

  • Commercial papers (CPs), Certificates of Deposits (CDs) – 5.22%
  • Tearsury Bills – 0.33%
  • Fixed Deposits – 0.08%

Fund Portfolio across Industries:

  • Financial – 27.6%
  • Technology – 14.8%
  • Energy – 12.3%
  • Construction – 8.8%
  • Automobile – 8.8%
  • Healthcare – 7.0%
  • Communication – 5.9%
  • Others – 14.9%

Top 20 Holdings:

  1. ICICI Bank Ltd – 9.94%
  2. Infosys Ltd – 8.20%
  3. HDFC Bank Ltd – 8.18%
  4. Reliance Industries Ltd – 7.22%
  5. Larsen & Toubro Ltd. – 5.50%
  6. Bharti Airtel Ltd. – 5.48%
  7. Axis Bank Ltd – 4.86%
  8. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd – 3.41%
  9. SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd – 3.21%
  10. HCL Technologies Limited – 2.71%
  11. TVS Motor Company Ltd. – 2.49%
  12. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd – 2.16%
  13. ITC limited – 2.09%
  14. Tech Mahindra Ltd – 1.61%
  15. ONGC – 1.36%
  16. Lupin – 1.31%
  17. Ultratech Cement Ltd – 1.27%
  18. United breweries Ltd – 1.21%
  19. Avenue Supermarket Ltd – 1.16%
  20. National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd – 1.08%

39% of this scheme’s portfolio is made up of its Top 5 securities, and 75% is made up of its Top 20 securities.

Risk Ratios of ICICI Bluechip Fund:

A mutual fund’s risk ratio should be analyzed before investing in it.

For predicting the volatility and risk of returns, we calculate a standard deviation, an alpha, a beta, and a sharpe ratio.

Below are the details of the fund’s three-year risk factors compared to the category average over this period.

  • Standard Deviation – 20.94 vs. 21.64
  • Alpha – (-) 0.02 vs (-) 0.85
  • Beta – 0.94 vs 0.97
  • Sharpe Ratio – 0.66 vs 0.62
  • R-square – 97.9 vs 96.49

The fund has Moderate risk compared to the category average.

Compared to the category average, it also provides a better risk-adjusted return.

ICICI Bluechip Fund Direct Growth Expense Ratio:

Any mutual fund scheme’s expense ratio plays a crucial role and impacts its performance.

The expense ratio or TER of ICICI prudential bluechip fund direct growth is 1.07%.

TER of the category average is 1.11%. This is one of the reason the fund has performed better than category average and benchmark in the long term (5+ years).

These are the expense ratio details for the same fund with different plans,

  • Regular – Growth – 1.71%
  • Regular – IDCW – 1.71%
  • Direct – IDCW – 1.07%

This scheme’s Direct-Growth plan is the best choice.

ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund Managers:

The fund manager’s history is essential information for every mutual fund investor.

Two managers manage this fund. Anish Tawakley, and Vaibhav Dusad.

Anish tawakley has been managing the fund since September 2018. He holds about 24+ years of experience in the capital market.

Before joining ICICI AMC, he worked as an Equity Research and Credit Suisse India as an Equity research analyst in Barclays India.

Apart from this fund, he manages six more schemes in ICICI AMC (6 Equity schemes)

Vaibhav Dusad has been managing the fund since January 2021. He is an Equity Research analyst with 11+ years of experience in the financial market.

Before joining ICICI AMC, he worked in Morgan Stanley, HSBC Global Banking and Markets, CRISIL, Zinnov Management Consulting, and Citibank Singapore.

Apart from this fund, he manages four more schemes in ICICI AMC (4 Equity schemes)

For more details, have a look at official fact sheet.

Conclusion:

  • ICICI blue chip fund is designed for investors with long-term goals.
  • This fund is one of India’s top picks in large-cap mutual funds.
  • Three years, five years, and performance since inception are high compared to benchmark and category average.
  • The expense ratio of this fund is less than the category average.
  • Portfolios are well diversified within 72 equity securities and a few cash components.
  • Hold moderate risk and better risk-adjusted returns compared to the category average.
  • Fund managers track records are awesome.