Mumbai: More women are now managing assets held by Indian mutual funds than a couple of years back, but women still represent a mere 8 per cent of the total fund managers across fund houses.
There are just 29 women out of 345 fund managers who are managing funds either as primary/secondary managers or have oversight as heads of equity/debt.
This is an improvement from the reported 24 women managers last year and 18 in the year before that, said a report by Morningstar.
The overall mutual fund industry assets increased by about 8.5 per cent last year with the total assets being managed standing at roughly Rs 22.2 lakh crore as on January 31, 2019.
Out of the total assets managed by women fund managers, 52 per cent of the asset under management (AUM) outperformed the benchmark/ peer group average over a one-year basis, 55 per cent over a three-year basis and 56 per cent over a five-ear basis.
Out of the total funds managed by women, about 74 per cent of these assets were debt funds and 26 per cent, equity.
Some of the leading women fund managers in the debt side included: Lakshmi Iyer, CIO (Debt) and Head of Products, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management; Bekxy Kuriakose, Head-Fixed Income, Principal PNB Asset Management; Sunaina Da Cunha, Fund Manager, Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management; and Anju Chhajer, Senior Fund Manager at Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management.
The names in the equity side included: Roshi Jain, VP and Fund Manager (Equities) at Franklin Templeton; Sohini Andani, Fund Manager at SBI Funds Management; and Swati Kulkarni, Executive VP and Fund Manager (Equities) at UTI Asset Management Company.
