Crisil launches five new AIF benchmarks to gauge performance

Crisil has launched five new benchmarks to gauge the performance of alternative investment funds (AIFs). "CRISIL MI&A Research on Wednesday launched its alternative investment fund (AIF) benchmarks for March 2023, including five new ones in the sub-category-level — social venture funds, SME funds — both in Category I; real estate funds – residential (debt-oriented) in Category II; and long-only equity funds (open-ended) and long-only equity funds (closed-end), both in Category III," it stated.

It also mentioned that these AIFs have been added to a list of already available sub-category-level benchmarks launched in May 2023.

Jiju Vidyadharan, Senior Director at CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics, said, "AIFs are one of the important sources of funding not only for early-stage start-ups, but also for companies that require growth capital. The growth of the AIF industry thus bodes well for economic development. AIF benchmarks help investors arrive at their decision and thus aid growth of the industry."

Piyush Gupta, Director, Funds Research at CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics, said, "The five new sub-category benchmarks will support granular comparison of strategies. The new real estate funds – residential (debt-oriented) category, which is a carve-out of real estate funds – residential, forms around 88 per cent of the total valuation coverage of real estate funds – residential in the CRISIL AIF benchmarks for March 2023. The long-only sub-category is divided almost equally among closed and open-ended funds in terms of assets under management."

CRISIL further underscored that it now provides peer comparison for AIFs in 15 sub-categories within the broad AIF categories I, II, and III to help investors analyse performance and evaluate investments.

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