Last Updated on March 9, 2019
A discussion about the investment strategy and performance of PPFAS Long Term Value Fund. The fund was launched in May 2013 when PFFAS decided to shut down its PMS and urged its clients to shift to their lone mutual fund.
Disclaimer: I am an NFO investor in the fund. I choose this because I was looking for a mid-cap fund and exposure to international stocks. Personally, I am quite happy with the performance.
Investment Philosophy: To invest in value stocks. That is solid businesses with long-term potential but available at a price lower than its intrinsic value. The fund makes it clear that 5 years is the minimum period that it would refer to as long-term and expects its investors to share such a view.
Asset Allocation:
Indian equity: 65% to 100%
International equity: 0% to 35%
Cash/Debt: 0% to 35%
Equity can refer to stocks or arbitrage positions.
Risk management: One of the unique aspects of the fund is its focus on risk management – in general, or due to the kind of investments that it makes. For example, because of its exposure to international stocks, currency risk and external interest rate risk arise. The fund uses derivatives to hedge such risks (more about this in a separate post).
Market-cap: The fund has no restrictions and can find ‘value’ across market caps. However, it does have a mid-cap,small-cap tilt most of the time.
Portfolio: I do not look at the portfolio of a fund, nor am I competent to talk about the choices the fund manager has made.
Expense Ratio: One of the biggest drawbacks of the fund is its high expense of the direct plan ~ 1% more than a fund with similar AUM. This is a big put off for potential new direct investors.
Although PPFAS has a distributor plan, it is like Quantum large a direct AMC. Much of its direct AUM is from its PMS clients and its own “skin in the game”. Also to the best of my knowledge, it is the only AMC with a distributor plan that interacts ‘directly’ with its investors via a unitholders meet. The point is, direct clients are key for its growth and reducing the expense ratio would be a big step towards this.
Benchmark: The fund is benchmarked to the CNX 500. This is an extremely easy index for a fund manager to beat! Moreover considering the freedom the fund has to invest, I believe it is an inappropriate benchmark. An R-squared value of 0.51 shows that there is a poor correlation between the returns of the fund and returns of the benchmark.
Absolute Volatility: The active risk management shows in the standard deviation of monthly returns calculated over 3 years. According to VR, it has 3rd lowest standard deviation. The standard deviation is a measure of how much each monthly return deviates from the average monthly return. Since it is not strictly valid, think of it as no more than a crude measure.
Relative Volatility: The volatility of the fund relative to its benchmark is measured by a metric known as beta. PPFAS LTVF has the lowest beta in the category. This is probably because it does not track the benchmark closely!
Performance: As an investor, I first worry about how well the fund has done in my portfolio. The answer is quite well. More details on how I analyse this can be found here: How to review a mutual fund portfolio
Next, I have to consider benchmark outperformance. For this fund, finding an appropriate benchmark itself is a challenge.
A few days ago, I had asked Would you invest in such a mutual fund?
I had not mentioned the fund/index in that post. It is PPFAS LTVF versus a Nifty Next 50 index fund. The actual question was, “What are you paying the fund manager for? Outperformance in terms of return or risk-adjusted return?
Over 3 years, although PPFAS LTVF is less volatile, the index fund has beat PPFAS. The ulcer index (a measure of downside risk) is much lower for PPFAS LTVF consistently. This is again proof of the active risk management strategy the fund uses.
Only those investors who are comfortable with this investment philosophy should consider this fund.
Peer Comparison: The mutual fund screener says that the fund has consistently beat the category median (which divides the category into two). This is relevant only for new investors and not existing investors like me.
Conclusion: If you don’t mind the high expense ratio, want the international equity exposure, value risk management, can take a long-term view and not worry about short-term downs (or ups), prefer steady performance over spectacular, this fund is suitable for you.
Other fund reviews: Check out my other fund reviews
Mutual Fund Performance Review: SBI Blue Chip Fund
Mutual Fund Performance Review: Quantum Long Term Equity Fund
Mutual Fund Performance Review: IDFC Premier Equity
Mutual Fund Performance Review: HDFC Equity Fund
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M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. since Aug 2006. Connect with him via Twitter or Linkedin Pattabiraman has co-authored two print-books, You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) and Gamechanger and seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation to promote unbiased, commission-free investment advice. He conducts free money management sessions for corporates and associations based on money management. Previous engagements include World Bank, RBI, BHEL, Asian Paints, Cognizant, Madras Atomic Power Station, Honeywell, Tamil Nadu Investors Association, IIST Alumni Association. For speaking engagements, write to pattu [at] freefincal [dot] comAbout freefincal & its content policy Freefincal is a News Media Organization dedicated to providing original analysis, reports, reviews and insights on developments in mutual funds, stocks, investing, retirement and personal finance. We do so without conflict of interest and bias. Follow us on Google News. Freefincal serves more than one million readers a year (2.5 million page views) with articles based only on factual information and detailed analysis by its authors. All statements made will be verified from credible and knowledgeable sources before publication. Freefincal does not publish any paid articles, promotions, PR, satire or opinions without data. All opinions presented will only be inferences backed by verifiable, reproducible evidence/data. Contact information: letters {at} freefincal {dot} com (sponsored posts or paid collaborations will not be entertained)
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