CRYSTAL GAZING 3.0

Bharat Shah
Executive Director, ASK Group

Mr. Bharat Shah, is an Executive Director at ASK Group and has been associated with them since 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Bombay and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. Having a 25 years of experience in the field of investment management, he has a considerable understanding of global businesses and stock picking is his forte. His investment philosophy emphasizes buying quality businesses enjoying superior growth but at reasonable valuations. In 2013, he authored a book entitled “Of Long-Term Value & Wealth Creation from Equity Investing: Observation, Ideas and Reflection”.

Anshul Saigal,
Chief Investment Officer, Kotak Portfolio Management Services

MBA in Finance, Bachelor in Engineering and brings Financial Markets experience of 2 decades. He manages the Portfolio Management Services business at Kotak AMC. He has strong grounding in Graham/ Buffet styles of Investing, hence his portfolios are managed in a disciplined manner under the Value Investment philosophy. Portfolios seek to identify Special Situations and Value Opportunities to take advantage of mis-priced market instruments. Areas of focus are corporate restructurings, price-arb opportunities, under-researched pockets and companies with competitive moats (preferably having temporary performance concerns). Passionate about the markets and endeavours to constantly learn through writings of capital market doyens like Ben Graham, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, George Soros with a particular interest in behavioural finance.

Anup Maheshwari
Chief Investment Officer and Joint – Chief Executive Officer, 360 One Asset

Anup Maheshwari is the Chief Investment Officer and Joint – Chief Executive Officer of 360 One Asset. Anup is responsible for the investment and strategy for 360 One AMC’s business including mutual funds and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). He plays a key role in meeting the company’s aggressive growth goals as well as product development and devising an innovative investment strategy.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, he has over 25 years of work experience in the financial services sector. Prior to joining 360 One Asset , he has been associated with DSP Investment Managers Private Limited (formerly known as DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Private Limited) for over 21 years as an Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer. He was also associated with HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited & Merrill Lynch India Equities Fund (Mauritius) Limited.

Anup was the chief investment officer at HSBC Asset Management between December 2005 and May 2006 before returning to DSP Investment Managers. Prior to joining DSP Investment Managers, he had worked for Chescor, a British fund management firm that used to run three offshore funds investing in Indian equities.

Anirudhha Sarkar
CIO & Portfolio Manager, Quest Investment Advisors

Mr. Aniruddha Sarkar is the CIO & Portfolio Manager at Quest Investment Advisors. He has over 13 years of experience in the Indian equity markets managing investors’ money. Prior to Quest, he was associated with IIFL for 11.5 years. At IIFL AMC, he had launched the IIFL Multicap PMS which he managed for 5 years before leaving in Jan 2020. He has been instrumental in generating significant alpha and outperformance for his clients over the years. He has a keen eye for identifying trends in the market early on and believes alpha creation comes from being ahead of the curve in identifying the trends in the economy and market. He mixes both top-down and bottom-up approaches in his portfolio creation.

Amit Jeswani
Founder & Fund Manager , Stallion Asset

Mr Amit Jeswani is a Double Charter, has successfully completed his Chartered Financial Analyst (Virginia, USA) and Chartered Market Technician (New York, USA). He graduated in Business with finance from Kingston University London. He has been investing in capital markets from last 14 years. He started at a tender age of 16 as his father was a Stock Broker and has worked with various financial giants. He is an active member with the Association of Technical Market Analyst and Indian Association of Investment Professionals.

Abhishek Agarwal is Bachelor’s in Commerce with majors in accounts from H.R. College in 2006 and MSc. Finance from Lancaster University Management School, the United Kingdom in 2007. In addition, he has pursued short-term courses from IIM- Ahmedabad, and ISB – Hyderabad.

Abhishek Agarwal has a proven track record of successfully investing in both Startups and Listed Equities space and has combined experience of 12+ years in the Indian Financial Market and Start-up Ecosystem.

Anunaya Kumar
Senior Executive Vice President- National Sales Head, 360 One Asset

Anunaya Kumar is Senior Executive Vice President & National Sales Head at IIFL Wealth & Asset Management. In this role, his focus is to build a profitable retail franchise and ensure that IIFL AMC becomes the foremost choice for investors and distributors across asset categories. During his professional journey of more than 2 decades, he has held several Senior Leadership Positions with banks and asset management companies and has managed relationships across B2B and B2C verticals. He has successfully managed the corporate banking, retail banking and wealth management profiles for banks before joining asset management companies and heading their Strategies and Sales vertical.

Prior to joining IIFL Wealth, he was associated with Invesco Mutual Fund as Director and Head of Sales. During his professional journey, he has also worked with DSP Blackrock Investment Managers, Royal Bank of Scotland (erstwhile ABN Amro Bank), Citibank N.A. and IDBI Bank Ltd. He is an MBA in Finance and is a Commerce Graduate from Punjab University.

Amit Ratanpal
Founder & Managing Director, BLinC Invest

Amit has over 20 years of experience across private equity, capital markets, asset management and investment banking. He has been instrumental in setting up various domestic and global funds and has invested and managed ~₹300Cr across 21 companies out of which 6 companies have achieved exit till date. He has been on the advisory board and investment committee of various funds. At ICICI, Amit set up and led the Private Equity (Fund of Funds) businesses and was an integral part of the International Banking Group. At Birla Sun Life, he was part of the treasury solutions team and led the E-Broking network. He is a Chartered Accountant, holds an Executive MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and has completed the General Management Program from Harvard Business School.

Aashish P Somaiyaa,
CEO – White Oak Capital Management

At White Oak, Aashish Sommaiya is responsible for managing and growing its operations. Aashish is an experienced professional and has experience in scaling up and managing relations across well-known AMCs like Motilal Oswal AMC and ICICI Pru AMC.

Master in Finance and Bachelors in Science, brings two decades of industry experience. He was responsible for strategizing, growing, and managing the operations of Motilal Oswal AMC – a niche, focused, expert equity boutique based on its time tested BUY RIGHT: SIT TIGHT investing style. He has been responsible in the past for sales and distribution of one of India’s largest AMCs; ICICI Prudential AMC for their MF, PMS, and Real Estate offerings through multiple distribution channels across India and the Middle East. Led new product development, product management, communication, and distribution channel delivery over a number of years. Aashish is passionate about Investing, Reading, Sales, Marketing, Communication, Training, Teaching, Writing, and Public Speaking. He loves traveling to meet new people.

Rajesh Kothari
Founder & MD, AlfAccurate

Mr. Rajesh Kothari, Founder and Managing Director of AlfAccurate Advisors, is the visionary behind the customer-driven and excellence based approach. A CWA and an MBA by qualification, he has a rich experience of more than 20 years in the Indian Capital Markets and has handled several investment projects in premier investment institutions.

During his tenure as a Fund Manager at DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers (now DSP BlackRock Investment Managers), the equity assets under management flourished from USD 100mn to USD 1.5bn. All through this period of five years, the equity schemes often ranked in its 1st ‘Quartile Ranking’ by CRISIL, a Standard & Poor’s affiliate. This is a testimony to Mr. Kothari’s financial acumen and vast knowledge of investments. He is the recipient of several awards for delivering superior and consistent risk-adjusted returns.

During his tenure as Director of Voyager Investment Advisors, a USA based India dedicated fund, the fund outperformed the benchmark indices significantly. Not surprisingly, CNBC, CRISIL, MyIris and others recognized his performance and awarded him for delivering unrivaled risk-adjusted returns. Economic Times also recognized his performance and awarded him as a ‘Platinum Fund Manager’. Additionally, he won the CRISIL Mutual Fund of the Year Award in 2006 for DSP Merrill Lynch Equity Fund. During his tenure, the fund house also received the Lipper India Fund award for the Best Equity Fund Group for three years. Moreover, he has also been a keynote speaker at several international conferences/summits like Maharashtra Economic Summit, Institute of Directors, TradeTech Asia conference and The World Council for Corporate Governance.

He is also actively involved with ‘Arham Yuva Seva Group’ – a philanthropic initiative with several significant programmes for a better world for the youth.

Mr. Prashant Khemka, Founder – White Oak Capital Management

Prior to setting up White Oak Capital Management Consultants LLP in June 2017, an investment advisory firm in India, Mr. Prashant Khemka spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) from March 2007 to March 2017, and also for the Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Equity from June 2013 to March 2017. He won several accolades as the CIO and Lead PM of GS India Equity. He and his fund won several awards including AAA rating from Citywire and Elite rating from Fund caliber among others. In addition to his long-standing India investing experience, Prashant brings a unique perspective derived across developed and emerging market equities and has successfully managed US and global emerging markets funds for leading institutions, during the last two decades. 

Prashant graduated with honors from Mumbai University with a BE in Mechanical Engineering and earned an MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University, where he received the Matt Wigginton Leadership Award for outstanding performance in Finance. He was awarded the CFA designation in 2001 and is a fellow of the Ananta Aspen Centre, India.

Nimesh Mehta
Director & Country Head- Sales & Products, ASK Investment Managers

Mr. Nimesh Mehta has more than 21 years of experience in industries ranging from NBFC, Equities, Asset Management & Financial Services. He is an author of an International Bestseller book on Amazon titled “Sales Booster.”

Raamdeo Agrawal
Chairman, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited

An awardee of Rashtriya Samman Patra by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Raamdeo Agrawal is chairman of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited (MOFSL) and the driving force behind the company’s approach to investing. Mr. Agrawal has created the “QGLP” (Quality Growth Longevity & favorable Price) Investment Process and its ‘Buy Right, Sit Tight’ investing philosophy. Mr Agrawal is also the driving force behind the MOFSL Groups highly awarded research. He has been authoring the annual Motilal Oswal Wealth Creation Study since its inception in 1996. An Associate of Institute of Chartered Accountant of India and a member of the National Committee on Capital Markets of the Confederation of Indian Industry, he has also been featured on ‘Wizards of Dalal Street on CNBC TV 18.

Samir Arora
Founder – Helios Capital

Samir Arora is the main founder & fund manager at Helios Capital. From 1998 to 2003, he was the Head of Asian Emerging Markets at Alliance Capital Management in Singapore (both fund management and research, covering 9 markets). From 1993 to August 2003, Samir was the Chief Investment Officer of Alliance Capital’s Indian mutual fund business and, along with managing Alliance Capital’s Asian Emerging Markets mandates, managed all of Alliance Capital’s India-dedicated equity funds.

In 1993, Samir relocated to Mumbai from New York as Alliance Capital’s first employee in India to help start its Indian mutual fund business. He also managed ACM India Liberalization Fund an India-dedicated offshore fund from its inception in 1993 till August 2003. Prior to 1993, he worked with Alliance Capital in New York as a research analyst.

At Alliance Capital, India-dedicated mutual funds managed by Samir received over 15 awards during his tenure, including AAA rating from Standard and Poor’s Micropal for four years in a row (1999 to 2003) for the India Liberalization Fund. In 2002, he was voted as the most astute equity investor in Singapore (rank: 1st) in a poll conducted by The Asset magazine. More recently Helios Strategic Fund has been nominated for the Best India Fund by Eurekehedge in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 & 2020 and has won the award four times. Helios Strategic Fund has also received the AsiaHedge Award 2018 for its long-term (five years) performance.

Samir Arora received his undergraduate degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1983 and his MBA (gold medalist) from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 1985. He also received a master’s degree in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and was a recipient of the Dean’s scholarship for distinguished merit while at Wharton.

He likes to read books (not on kindle though), watch movies and attend live sporting events. Samir has total investing experience of 29 years. At PMS AIF WORLD, we have interacted a few times with Mr. Arora and his wise insights have always helped our audience navigate challenging market periods.

Samit Vartak
Founding Partner and CIO, SageOne Investment Managers

Samit Vartak, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of SageOne Investment Managers LLP

Samit has worked closely with various companies in the US and India, advising them on business strategy, profit optimization, growth and valuation. This experience forms the backbone that helps him better understand businesses and their fair value. He has been early in identifying and investing in multiple businesses across industries before they catch market attention. Samit actively shares his knowledge and learnings through widely followed investor newsletters, lectures at CFA society/industry forums/business schools and media interviews. Samit returned to India in 2006 after spending a decade in the USA working initially in corporate strategy with Gap Inc. and PwC Consulting, and then with Deloitte and Ernst & Young advising companies on business valuation and M&A. Samit is a CFA® charter holder, an MBA from Olin School of Business of the Washington University in St. Louis and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with Honors from Sardar Patel College of Engineering (SPCE), Mumbai University.

Ashwin Patni
Head- Products & Alternatives, Axis AMC

Mr. Ashwin Patni is the Head Products & Alternatives at Axis AMC. He has joined Axis AMC in 2010 as a Portfolio Manager – PMS and later he was elevated to the post of Head Products.

Prior to his engagement with Axis AMC, Ashwin was associated with IDFC Asset Management
Company as a Portfolio Manager, Structured Products. He has also worked with Standard Chartered Bank as Product Manager, Investment Services. He is a Post Graduate from IIM Calcutta, B.E. in Metallurgy, CFA (USA).

Debojyoti Ghosh
Fund Manager, Axis AMC

Mr. Debojyoti has more than 13 years of experience in private equity investments in India. He has full cycle deal experience driving key decision-making around investments, exits and portfolio management strategy.

Prior to joining Axis AMC, he was heading the India investments of BCP (Baer Capital). He performed complete fund management role in BCP including sourcing, evaluation, negotiation, portfolio management and exits focusing on early-stage investments. Prior to that, he was part of the Standard Chartered Private Equity team in India focusing on growth capital investments. He completed multiple investments and exits in different sectors including consumer, manufacturing, media, construction, services etc. In his current role he is primarily responsible for growing the unlisted investments platform at Axis Asset Management focusing on high-growth opportunities.

He is an MBA from IIM Calcutta and B.E. in Information Technology from Jadavpur University.

Ms. Radhika Gupta,

CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management

Ms. Radhika Gupta, the CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management since 2017, is an investment professional with a range of diverse experiences across asset management – globally and in India. At Edelweiss, her efforts are concentrated in helping build brand Edelweiss AMC into a fast-growing, differentiated and innovative asset manager. The recent launch of Bharat Bond ETF in partnership with the Government of India, India’s first corporate bond ETF, is yet another step in that direction.

Ms. Radhika is a global citizen having grown up across four continents, a keen storyteller, Bridge player, and Twitter microblogger. Her YouTube video, “The Girl with a Broken Neck” which narrates her life journey has garnered more than 100K views in a short span of time. She has graduated from Management and Technology Program from the University of Pennsylvania, with joint degrees in Economics from the Wharton School in addition to Computer Science Engineering from the Moore School, and is the founding President of the Penn Alumni Club of Mumbai. She is a member of the AMFI board, chairing the Committee of Mutual Fund Distributors, and a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO). She was recently honored by Business Today magazine naming her amongst “The 30 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business.”

Sunil Singhania
Founder – Abakkus Asset Management

Sunil Singhania, CFA, is the Founder of Abakkus Asset Management, LLP, an India-focused Asset Management Company he established in 2018. Prior to this, in his role as Global Head – Equities at Reliance Capital Ltd., he oversaw equity assets and provided strategic inputs across Reliance Capital Group of companies including asset management, insurance, AIF and offshore assets. And as CIO – Equities, Singhania led Reliance Mutual Fund (now Nippon India Mutual Fund), equity schemes to be rated amongst the best. Reliance Growth Fund (now Nippon India Growth Fund) grew over 100 times in less than 22 years under Singhania’s leadership. Furthermore, he led Reliance Asset Management (now Nippon Life Asset Management) Ltd.’s international efforts and was instrumental in launching India funds in Japan, South Korea, and the UK, besides managing mandates from institutional investors based in the US, Singapore, and other countries. In this capacity, he provided strategic insights and managed equity assets across the Reliance Capital Group, encompassing asset management, insurance, AIF, and offshore assets. 

Sunil Singhania, a highly acclaimed figure in the world of finance, has a distinguished career that spans over several decades. His remarkable achievements have solidified his position as a prominent fund manager and industry leader.

Recognized as one of the Best fund managers by Outlook Business in 2016 and 2017, Sunil’s excellence extends over a 10-year timeframe. He achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first Indian to be appointed to the Global Board of the CFA Institute, USA, a position he held from 2013 to 2019. Furthermore, Sunil Singhania currently stands as the sole Indian appointed to the IFRS Capital Market Advisory Committee (CMAC) from 2020 to 2023.

Beyond his impressive career, Sunil Singhania actively contributed to the finance community. He served as the Promoter of The Association of NSE Members of India, representing stock brokers. Sunil’s commitment to advancing the industry led to historic achievements, such as being the first individual from India to be elected as a member of the CFA Institute Board of Governors. His significant roles within the CFA Institute include Chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Nominating Committee. Moreover, he served on CFA Institute’s Standards of Practice Council for a substantial six-year term. Sunil Singhania was instrumental in founding the Indian Association of Investment Professionals, now recognized as CFA Society India, and held the position of its President for eight years.

Sunil Singhania embarked on his educational journey by graduating in commerce from Bombay University. He solidified his expertise by completing his Chartered Accountancy from the ICAI, Delhi, earning an all India rank. Additionally, he holds the prestigious Chartered Financial Analyst designation conferred by CFA Institute. Sunil’s global perspective was enriched through extensive international travel and participation in numerous global investment conferences and seminars.

Notably, Sunil Singhania was a key member of the 15-member international committee responsible for rewriting the Code of Ethics handbook of the CFA Institute. His substantial contributions within the finance sector have left an indelible mark on the industry.

Siddhartha Bhaiya
Managing Director, Aequitas Investment Consulting Private Limited

Siddhartha Bhaiya is a qualified Chartered Accountant and the driving force behind Aequitas Investment and has around 20 years of experience into Equity research and Equity Fund Management. With Siddhartha’s multibagger and contrarian stock picking approach, Aequitas has delivered ~32%CAGR returns over the last 9 years. He has been instrumental in taking Aequitas from a start-up to a 20 bn INR AUM with one of the best performance track record in the industry. Siddhartha believes in generating outsized returns by investing in small cap undiscovered companies. Siddhartha started his career as a Research Analyst with Sushil Finance and has worked with Stratcap Securities, Principal PNB AMC & Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM).

Shankar Gopalan
Chief Distribution Officer & Head of Sales, Quest Investment Advisors

Mr. Shankar Gopalan heads the sales and distribution initiatives at Quest. He has over 16 years of experience in channel sales and distribution management. He has worked across both mass distribution and niche products spanning the spectrum of mutual funds, PMS, and AIFs. He has a keen pulse of both key stakeholders viz. distributors and investors. Prior to quest, was associated with Sundaram Asset Management Co Ltd and Sundaram Alternates Assets Ltd for over decade and a half. He has completed his B. Com from St Joseph’s Collage, Tiruchirappalli and MBA from ICFAI, Mumbai.

Shailendra Kumar
Co-founder & CIO, Narnolia

Shailendra Kumar is the Co-Founder & CIO of  Narnolia.  Under his leadership, Narnolia has received numerous awards including ‘Most Consistent Portfolio Manager’ and is considered a premium investment advisory firm. He is known for his deep understanding of Investment theories, Stock-selection and Portfolio allocation. He has successfully developed and implemented all four major investing and trading strategies namely, value, growth, reversion and momentum. His preferred investing style is ‘growth in value’. Shailendra has a strong academic orientation having authored as well as mentored numerous financial publications. He has done extensive work on corporate valuation and derivative pricing. He has written as well as guided several finance research papers. Shailendra holds a post-graduate degree  from IIT, Delhi.

Anunaya Kumar
Senior Executive Vice President- National Sales Head, 360 One Asset

Anunaya Kumar is Senior Executive Vice President & National Sales Head at IIFL Wealth & Asset Management. In this role, his focus is to build a profitable retail franchise and ensure that IIFL AMC becomes the foremost choice for investors and distributors across asset categories. During his professional journey of more than 2 decades, he has held several Senior Leadership Positions with banks and asset management companies and has managed relationships across B2B and B2C verticals. He has successfully managed the corporate banking, retail banking and wealth management profiles for banks before joining asset management companies and heading their Strategies and Sales vertical.

Prior to joining IIFL Wealth, he was associated with Invesco Mutual Fund as Director and Head of Sales. During his professional journey, he has also worked with DSP Blackrock Investment Managers, Royal Bank of Scotland (erstwhile ABN Amro Bank), Citibank N.A. and IDBI Bank Ltd. He is an MBA in Finance and is a Commerce Graduate from Punjab University.

Rajesh Bhatia,
Managing Director & CIO,
ITI Long Short Equity Fund

–      30+ years of investment experience in Indian equities;  Last 14 years in Alternative Investments (Long-Short fund management)

–      Last assignment: CIO, Simto Investments, a subsidiary of Tata Investments; proprietary book

–      Co-founder & CIO, Heritage India Advisors, Indian advisor to New York based, Heritage Capital, an India long-short equity fund; The Heritage Fund was nominated as among the Top 5 funds in India for its performance in 2010, by Eureka Hedge, an independent international data provider and alternate research firm

–      Senior VP & Head, Portfolio Management Services (PMS), Reliance Capital Asset Management; started the business unit for the firm in 2004

–      Other Assignments : Corporate Database, SBC Warburg and IL&FS Private Equity

–      Education : Commerce graduate, H.R. College of Commerce & Economics; ACMA (cost and management accounting); Completed the CFA program conducted by CFA Institute, USA.

Vikas Khemani, CA, CFA, CS
Founder – Carnelian Asset Advisors

Vikas has ~23 years of capital markets experience, most recently as the CEO of Edelweiss Securities Ltd, where he spent 17 years incubating & building several businesses to leadership position including Institutional Equities and Equity Research.

With a strong business acumen & deep understanding of the Capital Markets, he enjoys strong relationships with Corporate India and is associated with several Industry bodies & committees including the CII National Council on Corporate Governance, FICCI Capital Markets Committee, Executive Council of Bombay Management Association.

He is also a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a global forum for entrepreneurs and CEOs and was awarded Young Professional Achievers Award for the service sector by the ICAI in 2014.