
Impact of changes in MF regulations on Small caps
SEBI circular on Mutual Funds could broaden market rally
SEBI has surprised all market participants with its latest circulars wherein multi-cap
mutual funds will be required to increase their exposure to mid and small caps
stocks to 25% of their AUM by January 2021. Based on our calculations Multi-cap
funds may need to decrease their exposure to large caps by `40,650 crore and
increase their exposure to mid and small cap stocks by `12,960 crore and
`27,690 crore by January 2021. While the allocation shift should not cause too
much of an issue for large and mid cap stocks given better liquidity it can lead to a
rerating for the small cap space given limited availability of quality stocks. We
believe that flows would go the most liquid names in the small cap space where
there are reasonable MF holdings rather than in smaller name with low liquidity
and fund holdings. As per our analysis the top 100 small caps stocks with relatively
large market caps and MF holdings have a free float market cap of ~`2,36,000
crore and could attract the majority of the flows (10-12% of free float on higher
side) to small caps if any. In our top picks portfolio we have six stocks which are
from the above list viz. Chalet Hotels, Hawkins Cooler, Inox Leisure, JK Lakshmi
Cement, Persistent Systems and VIP Industries. Metropolis Healthcare though not
part of the above list is part of the Nifty Smallcap 100 index and could also attract
MF flows while Zensar Technologies and Swaraj Engines are other high conviction
small cap stocks in the portfolio.
SEBI Circular could cause disruptions to existing multicap schemes
SEBI issued a circular on the 11th of September 2020 with a view to diversify the
investments of underlying investments of multi-cap funds across mid and small
caps. Under the new guidelines SEBI has proposed raising the minimum
investment in equities for Multi Cap Funds to 75% of assets from the earlier 65%
along with other proposed changes listed below:
Minimum investment of 25% of total assets in large cap companies.
Minimum investment of 25% of total assets in mid cap companies.
Minimum investment of 25% of total assets in small cap companies.
Some shift in AUM to Mid and small caps likely over bext few months
As per our calculations multi-cap funds have a total AUM of `1,46,500 crore with
almost 74% of AUM being allocated to large caps while allocation to mid and
small caps are 16.5% and 6.2% respectively. If the SEBI recommendations are
implement then there could be shift of `40,650 crore from large caps to mid and
small caps on the higher side. However the situation is still fluid and the actual shift
could be lower as MF houses are most likely to ask SEBI to reconsider the
proposal. However even if SEBI does not reconsider the proposal then fund houses
have the option of either merging it with existing large cap schemes or changing
the fund categorization to minimize the impact.
Exhibit 1: Summary of likely shift in aggregate AUM for multi-cap schemes
Scheme Profile
Amt (` Cr)
Possibility of churn
+/- (` Cr)
Source: Company, Angel Research
Source: Company, Angel Research
Note: Closing price as on 11
th
Sept.,2020