Tata MF Files for Tata Ultra Short Term Fund

Tata Mutual Fund has filed draft documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for Tata Ultra Short Term Fund. Once the scheme gets SEBI’s approval, it will operate as open-ended ultra short term debt scheme, without any exit load.

The ultra short term mutual fund space has recently witnessed an interest with the new fund offering (NFO) of HDFC Ultra Short Term Fund and Axis Ultra Short Term Fund. Last week, the newly minted YES Mutual Fund also filed one of its first schemes – YES Ultra Short Term Fund.

The scheme will invest 100 percent of its assets in debt and money market instruments with a Macaulay duration between three to six months, thus making it a relatively low risk debt investment. In terms of securitized debt investments, the scheme may invest up to 70 percent of assets in domestic securitized debt. The scheme will not invest in credit default swaps and foreign securitized debt.

The benchmark used for the scheme will be CRISIL Ultra Short Term Debt Index. This index tracks the performance of ultra short-term debt portfolio including securities such as certificates of deposit, commercial papers, high-rated corporate bonds, among others. The one-year returns of the index were 7.41 percent, three-year returns were 7.48 percent, while five-year returns were 8.12 percent, as of October 2018.

Tata Ultra Short Term Fund will be managed by Akhil Mittal, who is a senior fund manager with Tata Asset Management. Other top debt schemes managed by him include the Tata Dynamic Bond Fund with five-year returns at 5.33 percent and Tata Income Fund with five-year returns at 8.43 percent.

Other Funds by Tata Asset Management

{Data as on Feb 20, 2020; Source: Value Research}