How many infrastructure funds do we need? Well, there are 37 fund houses…

Every personal products company has its version of shampoo. Each fund company has to have its variety of infrastructure fund. Some have even multiple infrastructure funds. Recently Bharti AXA launched its Focused Infrastructure Fund and Baroda Pioneer introduced Baroda Pioneer Infrastructure Fund. The latest to enter the infrastructure bandwagon is IDFC's 'IDFC Infrastructure Fund'. IDFC Mutual Fund yesterday filed its draft offer document with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its open-ended 'IDFC Infrastructure Fund'. The fund will invest in all companies that are engaged in financing, developing, operating and maintaining any infrastructure project as defined by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Currently there are 18 infrastructure funds. Out of these, 11 have outperformed their respective benchmarks while seven have underperformed. Tata Infrastructure Fund launched in January 2005 has been the top performer. The fund posted 25% returns while its benchmark BSE Sensex posted 21% returns since the fund's inception in January 2005.

Birla Sun Life Infrastructure Fund, UTI Infrastructure Fund and Franklin Build India Fund have all posted 23% returns against their respective benchmarks. These are also among the top performers of this category. AIG Infrastructure and Economic Reform Fund's NAV has dipped 3% while its benchmarked BSE 100 posted 0.30% returns. This fund was launched in February 2008. 

The two recently-launched schemes, Baroda Pioneer Infrastructure Fund and Bharti AXA Focused Infrastructure Fund have been among the underperformers from this category. The former, launched in June 2010, has posted NAV returns of 5% while its benchmark CNX 100 yielded 8.42% returns since the fund's inception. The latter, launched in March 2010, has yielded 2% returns while its benchmark BSE 100 has gone up 12.81%. IDFC got into the asset-management business by taking over Standard Chartered's assets. The schemes have not done too well, after they came under IDFC's fund management. — Moneylife Digital Team