SBI Balanced Advantage Fund records highest ever NFO collection at Rs 14,500 crore

SBI Balanced Advantage Fund (SBAF), a new scheme launched by SBI mutual fund, whose new fund offer (NFO) closed on August 25 , has raised highest ever NFO collection by any mutual fund scheme. The scheme has collected Rs 14,500 crore. This is more than what ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund collected (Rs 9,500 crore) last month, which at the time, was the highest-ever NFO collection.

Sources say that the State Bank of India collected nearly Rs 6,000 crore out of the total inflows. The fund house refused to comment as the counting is still on. But, prima facie, two factors appear to have worked for the newly launched scheme. SBI is India’s largest bank with over 24,000 branches in India. A senior mutual fund industry official who did not wish to be quoted says that nearly 14,000 of the bank’s branches got inflows.

Secondly, the fund’s mandate is suitable for present time when equity markets are at their all-time highs. A balanced advantage fund, such as SBAF, automatically shifts from equities to debt instruments when equity markets go up substantially. Instead of investors having to do this manually in other schemes, balanced advantage funds do it automatically.