JioBlackRock Asset Management on Monday announced its foray into the specialised investment fund (SIF) segment with the launch of the Prism Hybrid Long-Short Fund. The scheme, which will operate as an absolute-return strategy, will invest across equities, debt, derivatives, and event-driven opportunities such as merger arbitrage. The fund house expects the strategy to generate 1-3 percentage points higher returns than pure equity arbitrage over a market cycle.
Merger arbitrage is an event-driven strategy that seeks to capture the price spread between the market price of a target company and its acquisition price after a takeover deal is announced.
The fund will maintain 35-75 per cent exposure to equities, at least 25 per cent in debt and money market instruments, and up to 20 per cent in InvITs. Within equities, it will invest in derivative-based collar strategies, merger arbitrage, and REITs. The scheme will also use ‘IPO flips’, tender offers, and other special situations to enhance returns.
According to the fund house, the scheme will invest using BlackRock’s systematic investing framework, supported by advanced signal research, big data, machine learning, and risk-management capabilities licensed from BlackRock, including Aladdin.
The scheme is also the asset manager’s first product to have both direct and regular plans. All its other products are available only through the direct route. The scheme will qualify for hybrid taxation.
ICICI Prudential MF launches multi-asset active FoF
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (MF) on Monday announced the launch of its multi-asset active fund of funds (FoF), which will dynamically allocate investments across equity, debt, and commodity ETFs. The scheme will invest 30-80 per cent in active equity funds, 10-60 per cent in active debt funds, and 10-30 per cent in gold and silver ETFs, with allocations changing based on the relative attractiveness of each asset class. The scheme will qualify for long-term capital gains taxation after a holding period of 24 months.
The equity portfolio, the fund house said, will be driven by the AMC’s in-house equity valuation index and macroeconomic views to identify opportunities across sectors, themes, and market-capitalisation segments. Debt allocation will be actively managed across duration and accrual strategies, while exposure to gold and silver will be guided by factors such as real interest rates, the dollar index, inflation trends, and industrial demand. The advantage of the structure, according to the fund house, is its tax-efficient portfolio rebalancing, as switches between the underlying schemes do not attract capital gains tax for investors.
“The objective is to help investors participate in opportunities across asset classes through a structured and research-driven investment process, thereby creating a more consistent investing experience,” said Sankaran Naren, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer, ICICI Prudential AMC.