Getting Their Act Together : Canara Robeco Schemes
One AMC whose all the debt schemes are doing well on the entire yield curve is Canara Robeco. After quitting from Kotak AMC, Ritesh Jain took over the fixed income desk at Canara Robeco & since then, most of the schemes which he is managing have started performing exceptionally well.
Which are the schemes that merit attention from their stable?:
- Canara Robeco Income Scheme
- Canara Robeco Dynamic Bond & ( Inception May 29’2009)
- Canara Robeco Short Term Plan ( Inception March 31’2009)
Canara Robeco Income Scheme:
When most of the Income schemes were posting negative returns, Canara Robeco has consistently done well even in the rising interest rate scenarios. Their performance from Year to Date when interest rates were going up from 5% to currently at 7.37% will reflect their consistency in performance & returns.
| CANARA ROBECO INCOME SCHEME | ||
| Since September 01’2008 till August 31’2009 | ||
| Rolling Returns in % p.a. |
3 Months |
6 Months |
| No of Observations |
237 |
239 |
| Highest |
52.05% |
50.87% |
| Lowest |
-0.96% |
8.29% |
| Average |
25.58% |
27.17% |
| No of Negative Obs |
7 |
NIL |
Also they have consistent track record ( even in these rising interest & volatile debt markets) of declaring quarterly dividends:
|
Scheme Name
|
Record Date |
Gross-% |
| Canara Robeco Income(QD) |
06-Jul-2009 |
7.5000 |
| Canara Robeco Income(QD) |
26-Mar-2009 |
7.5000 |
| Canara Robeco Income(QD) |
02-Jan-2009 |
7.5000 |
Going forward the Fund Manager has taken a call to convert this into an 80:20 product i.e. 80% in Money Market & 20% in Trading Calls. He is confident of locking higher gross yields on Money Market & take the right trading calls (which is reflecting both in his Income & Dynamic Bond Fund) & earn upwards of 8% p.a. over next one year or so. Other positive feature of the said scheme is that there is no concentration risk as they have 6000 investors with an average ticket size of less than Rs.1cr per investor. This gives stability to the scheme & gives the Fund Manager leeway to take correct calls due to long term nature of the funds.
I recommend investment in the said scheme with one year investment horizon. There is an exit load of 0.50% if redeemed within 6 months of allotment date.
Canara Robeco Dynamic Bond Fund:
Kindly refer to my note of July 29’2009 titled: “True to Its Name-Fortis Flexi Debt” wherein we had analysed the performance of the scheme over various time horizons, especially during times of rising interest rate regime. The Fund Manager of the said scheme Mr. Alok Singh has constantly churned their portfolio & changed duration based on interest rate calls & created alpha & beaten the benchmarks over various timeframes.
A similar product, managed in a similar fashion is Canara Robeco Dynamic Bond Fund. The Fund Manager has dynamically managed the scheme based on his interest rate views & is reflecting in scheme performance over various timeframes.
| Fund / Benchmarks |
AUM (Rs.Cr) |
|
|
|
|
|
Returns |
|
31-Aug-09 |
YTD |
1 Day |
7 Days |
14 Days |
1 Month |
3 Months |
|
| No of Funds / Peer Group Avg |
|
-7.94 |
14.84 |
8.69 |
4.71 |
-2.43 |
-0.08 |
| Peer Group Median |
|
-7.65 |
19.49 |
8.13 |
3.99 |
-3.91 |
0.04 |
| Canara Robeco Dynamic Bond Inst |
287 |
— |
6.47 |
11.21 |
9.06 |
5.13 |
5.49 |
| HSBC Flexi Debt Inst |
152 |
-2.78 |
22.69 |
6.06 |
3.37 |
1.22 |
3.15 |
| ICICI Pru Income Opportunities Inst |
132 |
— |
22.68 |
19.01 |
10.85 |
-4.19 |
2.32 |
| IDFC Dynamic Bond Plan B |
341 |
-6.61 |
20.27 |
10.2 |
4.62 |
-6.99 |
-2.24 |
| JP Morgan India Active Bond Inst |
82 |
-13.67 |
-1.75 |
1 |
3.2 |
-3.62 |
-5.02 |
| Religare Active Income Fund Inst |
281 |
-8.68 |
18.71 |
4.64 |
-2.82 |
-6.16 |
-4.18 |
| NSE Treasury Bill Index |
|
6.42 |
0 |
11.64 |
7.65 |
1.38 |
4.78 |
As can be seen from above, a) they have consistently outperformed the benchmark & b) consistently outperformed the peers as well. Though there is no exit load in this scheme, I would recommend you to have at least 9-12 month investment horizon for your investment. In the current volatile interest rate scenario, it is prudent to entrust a Fund Manager who can take interest rate 7 duration calls on behalf of the investors & also make it more tax efficient.
Canara Robeco Short Term Plan:
Similar to Religare Short Term Plan, the said scheme has 70:30 composition in favour of Money Market to MTM. Currently the said scheme has following break up:
Cash 60%
Trading in 2-3 yrs papers 20%
High Accrual Money Market 20%
Said scheme has consistently safeguarded investors on downside (even when Short End of the Curve went up sharply) due to its strategy of only 30% in MTM & 70% in Money Markets & given above average performance on the upside. There is no entry or exit loads applicable to this scheme. Following chart will illustrate this better:
| CANARA ROBECO SHORT TERM FUND | |
| Since July 01’2009 till August 31’2009 | |
| Rolling Returns in % p.a. |
3 Months |
| No of Observations |
43 |
| Highest |
10.38% |
| Lowest |
6.68% |
| Average |
8.05% |
| No of Negative Obs |
NIL |
I would recommend you to invest in the said scheme with at least 6 month investment horizon.
I believe that Canara Robeco has reinvented themselves and are on the right track for every investor to entrust some of their portfolio ( based on time horizon) to their schemes. With the Fund Managers current & past track record, I would strongly recommend you start investing in their schemes.
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