ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders Strategy: Mid-Cap Stock Picking Backed by 38.9% Earnings Growth
Last updated: 12 October 2026
Quick answer: ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders Strategy is a mid-cap-focused PMS launched on February 20, 2024. As of July 31, 2026, it held 39 stocks (59.48% mid-cap, 31.59% small-cap) and had returned 9.65% a year since inception against 6.94% for the BSE 500 TRI. It has no 3-year record yet and suggests a horizon of four years or more.
Last updated: 12 October 2026 Quick answer: ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders Strategy is a mid-cap-focused PMS launched on February 20, 2024. As of July 31, 2026, it held 39 stocks (59.48% mid-cap, 31.59% small-cap) and had returned 9.65% a year since inception against 6.94% for the BSE 500 TRI. It has no 3-year record yet and suggests a horizon of four years or more. Key takeaways Mid-cap core: 59.48% mid-cap, 31.59% small-cap and 5.24% large-cap as of July 31, 2026. Short record: 10.30% over one year and 4.57% annualised over two years, against 2.98% and 0.42% for the BSE 500 TRI. Earnings growth: the current holdings grew aggregate profit at a 38.92% three-year CAGR, the highest on ICICI Prudential's PMS shelf. Sector tilt: Auto Components 13.81% and Ferrous Metals 12.83% lead the top five sectors (47.77%). Horizon: four years or more; 3- and 5-year return data do not exist yet. Strip away every other number in ICICI Prudential's PMS lineup and one statistic stands out: the companies currently held in the ICICI Prudential PMS Emerging Leaders Strategy have grown profits at a 38.92% three-year CAGR — by a wide margin the fastest earnings growth of any portfolio on the AMC's platform. That is what a predominantly mid-cap, bottom-up stock-picking mandate looks like when it is working. Money n Wealth is an AMFI-registered mutual fund distributor and APMI-registered PMS distributor focused on Portfolio Management Services and Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) in India. This review breaks down how Emerging Leaders selects stocks, what it owns today, and how its short but strong track record has looked so far. Quick Facts: ICICI Prudential PMS Emerging Leaders Strategy Inception Date February 20, 2024 Benchmark BSE 500 TRI Ideal Investment Horizon 4 years and above Portfolio Style Predominantly mid-cap, buy-and-hold (~35-40 stocks) Number of Holdings 39 stocks (as of July 31, 2026) Fund Manager Managed under Anand Shah, CIO – PMS & AIF, ICICI Prudential AMC About the ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders Strategy Emerging Leaders aims to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in mid-cap companies, with the flexibility to also hold small-caps. The strategy specifically targets fundamentally strong, mid-sized businesses that are already among the market leaders in their industries — as well as companies whose market capitalisation is small today but has the potential to become large, and businesses undergoing special situations or an unfavourable point in their business cycle. It is run as a buy-and-hold strategy with a four-year-plus recommended horizon, positioned between the more defensive, large-cap-anchored strategies and the higher-risk, small-cap-focused ones on ICICI Prudential's platform. How Stocks Are Selected Emerging Leaders uses the same BMV framework (Business, Management, Valuation) that anchors ICICI Prudential Alternate Investments' entire PMS & AIF platform. The Portfolio Manager blends top-down and bottom-up approaches — top-down analysis is used to identify macro and sectoral themes, while bottom-up research identifies specific mid-cap companies believed to be attractively positioned within them, drawing on in-house coverage of roughly 680 companies across 20-plus sectors. The strategy's current tilt towards auto components and metals lines up with ICICI Prudential CIO Anand Shah's broader 2026 view that capex-linked, manufacturing-adjacent sectors are among the better-positioned parts of the market as India's private capex cycle continues, alongside financialisation-linked plays. Portfolio Snapshot (as of July 31, 2026) The strategy holds 39 stocks , with the top 5 sectors at 47.77% and top 10 holdings at 37.66% of the portfolio — a fairly diversified mid-cap book. Top Holdings % of Assets FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd (Nykaa) 5.29% Jindal Stainless Ltd 4.78% Jindal Steel Ltd 3.99% Sarda Energy and Minerals Ltd 3.59% National Aluminium Company Ltd 3.54% Bharat Forge Ltd 3.43% Honasa Consumer Ltd 3.42% K P R Mill Ltd 3.38% The Federal Bank Ltd 3.14% L&T Technology Services Ltd 3.10% Top 5 sectors: Auto Components (13.81%), Ferrous Metals (12.83%), Capital Markets (7.71%), Finance (7.57%), Retailing (5.85%). Market-cap mix: Mid-cap 59.48%, Small-cap 31.59%, Large-cap 5.24%, Cash & Others 3.69%. Performance Track Record Period Emerging Leaders Strategy BSE 500 TRI 1 Year 10.30% 2.98% 2 Years 4.57% 0.42% Since Inception (Feb 2024) 9.65% 6.94% Longer-period returns (3 and 5-year) are not yet available given the strategy's February 2024 launch; figures above one year are annualised, as of July 31, 2026, based on aggregate Time-Weighted Rate of Return across client accounts and not verified by SEBI. The standout number, however, sits at the portfolio level rather than the return level: the strategy's current holdings have delivered 38.92% three-year PAT CAGR in aggregate, with Return on Equity improving from 13.77% (FY23) to 14.02% (FY26) — evidence of genuinely fast-growing underlying businesses, even though the strategy's own two-and-a-half-year return history is still relatively short. Bar chart comparing ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders Strategy PMS returns with the BSE 500 TRI over 1 year, 2 years and since February 2024, as of July 31, 2026 Emerging Leaders vs BSE 500 TRI (as of July 31, 2026) Who This Strategy May Suit Emerging Leaders suits investors seeking dedicated mid-cap exposure with active, bottom-up stock selection rather than a mid-cap index proxy, and who are comfortable with a four-year-plus horizon. As with any strategy under three years old, its own return track record should be treated as an early read rather than a full-cycle result — the strength of the underlying portfolio's earnings growth is a more robust signal at this stage than short-period returns. Money n Wealth's View A 38.92% three-year earnings growth rate in the underlying portfolio is a notable data point, though it describes the companies held today rather than the returns investors have actually earned. As an APMI-registered PMS and AIF distributor, Money n Wealth's view is that this kind of portfolio-level fundamental data is a useful, complementary lens to headline returns, particularly for strategies that haven't yet built a full market cycle of return history. For investors weighing mid-cap PMS exposure against mutual fund alternatives, see our PMS versus mutual funds comparison (/insights/pms-vs-mutual-funds-1-crore-investors) . How This Strategy Compares With ICICI Prudential's Other PMS Strategies ICICI Prudential runs ten PMS strategies from the same research platform. The table below sets them side by side so you can see where each sits on market-cap tilt, track record and horizon. Returns are as disclosed by ICICI Prudential AMC as of July 31, 2026 (TWRR, annualised above one year, not verified by SEBI); the since-inception column shows the strategy against its own benchmark (BSE 500 TRI, except Largecap, which uses Nifty 50 TRI). Strategy Inception Largest cap exposure Stocks 1Y 3Y 5Y Since inception vs benchmark Horizon Growth Leaders (/insights/icici-prudential-growth-leaders-strategy-pms-review) Dec 2000 Large-cap 60.56% 35 6.37% 15.84% 14.52% 12.16% vs 12.36% 4 years+ Value (/insights/icici-prudential-value-strategy-pms-review) Jan 2004 Large-cap 50.57% 35 10.63% 18.17% 20.05% 12.97% vs 12.36% 3 years+ Largecap (/insights/icici-prudential-largecap-strategy-pms-review) Mar 2009 Large-cap 91.40% 28 7.54% 17.57% 15.46% 15.96% vs 14.83% 3 years+ ACE (/insights/icici-prudential-ace-strategy-pms-review) Dec 2010 Large-cap 51.38% 34 6.90% 19.62% 14.33% 14.51% vs 11.90% 4 years+ SMART (/insights/icici-prudential-smart-strategy-pms-review) Oct 2014 Large-cap 64.87% 34 7.02% 18.96% 19.24% 14.52% vs 12.94% 3 years+ Contra (/insights/icici-prudential-contra-strategy-pms-review) Sep 2018 Large-cap 71.46% 39 6.26% 15.09% 16.56% 18.10% vs 13.07% 4 years+ PIPE (/insights/icici-prudential-pipe-strategy-pms-review) Sep 2019 Small-cap 84.01% 40 9.59% 17.04% 19.18% 24.72% vs 16.35% 5 years+ Emerging Leaders (/insights/icici-prudential-emerging-leaders-strategy-pms-review) Feb 2024 Mid-cap 59.48% 39 10.30% — — 9.65% vs 6.94% 4 years+ Quanti-FI (/insights/icici-prudential-quanti-fi-strategy-pms-review) Feb 2024 Large-cap 58.52% 47 4.88% — — 5.64% vs 7.85% 4 years+ Rising Stars (/insights/icici-prudential-rising-stars-strategy-pms-review) Feb 2026 Small-cap 66.62% 33 — — — 10.45%* vs -0.05%* 5 years+ * Rising Stars launched in February 2026; its since-inception figures are absolute (not annualised) returns over about five months. A dash means the strategy does not yet have that track record. Watch for overlap. Several ICICI Prudential strategies share top holdings — names such as ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and FSN E-Commerce (Nykaa) appear in many of the portfolios above. If you are considering two ICICI Prudential strategies together, compare their holdings first so the second one genuinely diversifies the first. Fees, Minimum Investment and Taxation The minimum investment for any ICICI Prudential PMS strategy, as for every PMS in India, is ₹50 lakh, which can usually be funded in cash, by transferring existing listed securities, or both, subject to the portfolio manager's acceptance. PMS fees typically follow a fixed-fee, performance-fee (charged above a hurdle, usually with a high-water mark) or hybrid structure; the exact fee schedule and exit load are set out in ICICI Prudential's Disclosure Document, which you should read before signing. Because the shares sit in your own demat account, every sale by the portfolio manager is taxed in your hands: short-term capital gains on listed equity at 20% and long-term gains at 12.5% above the annual ₹1.25 lakh exemption, with dividends taxed at your slab rate. See how PMS onboarding, funding, taxation and exit work (/insights/how-pms-works-onboarding-funding-taxation-exit) and PMS vs mutual funds (/insights/pms-vs-mutual-funds-1-crore-investors) for more. Related reading on Money n Wealth ICICI Prudential PIPE Strategy: small-cap PMS since 2019 (/insights/icici-prudential-pipe-strategy-pms-review) ICICI Prudential Rising Stars: new small-cap PMS (2026) (/insights/icici-prudential-rising-stars-strategy-pms-review) ICICI Prudential ACE Strategy: under-penetrated themes (/insights/icici-prudential-ace-strategy-pms-review) Portfolio Management Services in India: the 2026 guide (/insights/pms-india) Explore PMS strategies with Money n Wealth (/products/pms) Frequently Asked Questions Is Emerging Leaders a pure mid-cap fund? It is predominantly mid-cap (59.48% as of July 2026) but retains flexibility to invest in small-caps (31.59%) and holds a small large-cap allocation as well. How fast have the underlying portfolio companies grown earnings? The current holdings have posted a 38.92% three-year CAGR in profit after tax in aggregate, as of July 31, 2026 — the highest among ICICI Prudential's PMS strategies. How long has the strategy existed? It onboarded its first client on February 20, 2024, so it has just over two years of history as of this review. What is the recommended investment horizon? Four years or more. How is Emerging Leaders different from ICICI Prudential's PIPE Strategy? Both invest mainly outside large caps, but the mix differs. As of July 31, 2026, Emerging Leaders held 59.48% in mid caps and 31.59% in small caps, while PIPE held 84.01% in small caps and 14.04% in mid caps. PIPE has run since September 2019 with a five-year-plus horizon; Emerging Leaders launched in February 2024 and suggests four years or more. Has ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders beaten its benchmark? Over the short periods available, yes. As of July 31, 2026, it returned 10.30% over one year, 4.57% annualised over two years and 9.65% annualised since February 2024, against 2.98%, 0.42% and 6.94% for the BSE 500 TRI. Two and a half years is too short to judge a mid-cap strategy across a full market cycle. What are the largest holdings in ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders? As of July 31, 2026, the top positions were FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) at 5.29%, Jindal Stainless at 4.78%, Jindal Steel at 3.99%, Sarda Energy and Minerals at 3.59% and National Aluminium at 3.54%. The top 10 made up 37.66% of the portfolio. Holdings come from the oldest client account and change over time. Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer/solicitation to invest in any security or PMS strategy. Portfolio Management Services are subject to market risks; please read the Disclosure Document and Client Agreement carefully before investing. Performance figures cited are as disclosed by ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Ltd. as of July 31, 2026, are based on aggregate client performance using the Time-Weighted Rate of Return method, are not verified by SEBI, and individual client returns may vary. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Stocks, sectors and holdings mentioned are illustrative of the portfolio's oldest client account as of the stated date, may change without notice, and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell. Money n Wealth (Predics Fintech Services Pvt Ltd) is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-121995) and APMI-registered PMS Distributor (APRN-07444); this is not a SEBI-registered investment advisory service. Please consult your financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Emerging Leaders a pure mid-cap fund?
It is predominantly mid-cap (59.48% as of July 2026) but retains flexibility to invest in small-caps (31.59%) and holds a small large-cap allocation as well.
How fast have the underlying portfolio companies grown earnings?
The current holdings have posted a 38.92% three-year CAGR in profit after tax in aggregate, as of July 31, 2026 — the highest among ICICI Prudential's PMS strategies.
How long has the strategy existed?
It onboarded its first client on February 20, 2024, so it has just over two years of history as of this review.
What is the recommended investment horizon?
Four years or more.
How is Emerging Leaders different from ICICI Prudential's PIPE Strategy?
Both invest mainly outside large caps, but the mix differs. As of July 31, 2026, Emerging Leaders held 59.48% in mid caps and 31.59% in small caps, while PIPE held 84.01% in small caps and 14.04% in mid caps. PIPE has run since September 2019 with a five-year-plus horizon; Emerging Leaders launched in February 2024 and suggests four years or more.
Has ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders beaten its benchmark?
Over the short periods available, yes. As of July 31, 2026, it returned 10.30% over one year, 4.57% annualised over two years and 9.65% annualised since February 2024, against 2.98%, 0.42% and 6.94% for the BSE 500 TRI. Two and a half years is too short to judge a mid-cap strategy across a full market cycle.
What are the largest holdings in ICICI Prudential Emerging Leaders?
As of July 31, 2026, the top positions were FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) at 5.29%, Jindal Stainless at 4.78%, Jindal Steel at 3.99%, Sarda Energy and Minerals at 3.59% and National Aluminium at 3.54%. The top 10 made up 37.66% of the portfolio. Holdings come from the oldest client account and change over time.
