October 14, 2025
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As part of our ongoing effort to keep investors informed about innovative mutual fund offerings, we bring you an insightful interaction with Mr. Chintan Haria, Principal – Investment Strategy at ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund.
In this exclusive conversation, Mr. Haria discusses the recently launched ICICI Prudential Conglomerate Fund NFO, which is currently open for subscription. The scheme aims to capture opportunities arising from India’s large and diversified conglomerates—business groups that have demonstrated resilience, scalability, and leadership across multiple sectors.
With his vast experience in investment strategy and fund positioning, Mr. Haria sheds light on the investment philosophy, sectoral allocation approach, and long-term wealth creation potential of the new fund. He also shares insights into how this fund fits into an investor’s diversified portfolio and the rationale behind launching it at this juncture of India’s economic growth cycle.
Q1. Conglomerates often bring stability through diversified businesses, but they also carry risks from cyclical sectors like metals and energy. How does this fund plan to balance these cyclical vulnerabilities while aiming for long-term wealth creation?
A: The fund uses a structural and cyclical portfolio framework. Structurally strong businesses with sound promoter quality, defined market position, and strong execution form the core. Cyclical exposures are taken selectively when the cycle turns favourable. With cross-sector flexibility across 71 business groups and about 240 companies*, the portfolio can offset weakness in one segment with strength in others. This design is aimed to help smooth returns through cycles.
*The universe of 240 companies is as per the internal classification which may change in future.
Q2. The benchmark – BSE Select Business Groups Index – is relatively new and thematic. What makes this index a suitable yardstick for investors, and how do you see conglomerates outperforming standalone companies over the next 5–10 years?
A: The BSE Select Business Groups Index represents diversified promoter-led groups that mirror India’s evolving corporate structure. The BSE Select Business Groups Index is a suitable benchmark for conglomerate investing because it tracks the performance of India’s major diversified business houses making it thematically aligned with a conglomerate focused approach. Although the Index is relatively new, it represents how big Indian groups are shaping the economy showing the stability and risk profile of conglomerates.
Conglomerates benefit from lower capital costs, deep pockets, integration synergies, and exposure to sunrise sectors, are factors that can drive good risk-adjusted performance versus standalone companies over the medium to long term.
Q3. Many investors are concerned about valuation peaks in large business groups. What is your strategy to avoid concentration risk and ensure the fund doesn’t get overexposed to a handful of top conglomerates?
A: With a universe of around 240 stocks spanning 71 business groups and 18 sectors, diversification is built by default into the portfolio design. The fund draws from a wide opportunity set across large, mid, and small caps, allowing flexibility to participate in multiple growth drivers. Our structural-and-cyclical framework helps identify fundamentally strong businesses while taking selective exposure to favourable cycles. This disciplined, cross-sector allocation approach reduces the likelihood of over-reliance on a few large conglomerates or valuation-heavy names, keeping the portfolio balanced through changing market phases.
Q4. This fund is classified as “Very High Risk”. What type of investors should seriously consider this NFO, and what role should it play in an investor’s portfolio—core allocation or satellite allocation?
A: The fund’s classification suits investors with a long-term horizon seeking thematic exposure to India’s diversified business houses. Given its nature, it is better positioned as a satellite allocation. It can complement core diversified equity holdings, offering thematic participation while managing the higher volatility that may arise during market or sector rotations.
Q5. How do you see this Conglomerate Fund positioning itself against competing thematic offerings like Aditya Birla Conglomerate Fund or Baroda BNP Paribas Business Conglomerates? What differentiates ICICI Prudential’s approach?
A:, Our approach is designed around depth, flexibility and process discipline. The ICICI Prudential Conglomerate Fund draws from a larger investible universe allowing us to balance both structural strength and cyclical opportunity. The portfolio construction combines top-down macro assessment with bottom-up stock selection. This integrates a structural-and-cyclical lens to identify durable compounders as well as tactical opportunities.
We retain market-cap neutrality and cross-sector mobility. This means the fund can dynamically reposition between industrials, financials, and sunrise segments such as semiconductors, renewables, and EVs. The flexibility comes with ICICI Prudential’s in-house research depth and risk-controlled framework.
– By Jainee Shah
Director
Chanakya Mediahouse Pvt. Ltd.
SEBI Registered Research Analyst
Chartered Accountant