ITI MF has turned around its equity franchise smartly over the last 2 years, has crossed its first important milestone of Rs.5000 cr in AuM and is now gearing up for what it hopes will be a J curve growth path.
Equity fund performance has improved considerably: its new funds Focused Equity and Flexicap have got off to good starts, older funds like Small Cap and Multi Cap are in top quartile over last 1 year, Large Cap and Value are in 2nd quartile. More work is required with its Midcap fund to bring its performance up as well.
Rajesh attributes this to a complete overhaul and deepening of its equity team, which now has 6 fund managers, all with 15-20 years of experience, managing different schemes and ensuring adequate focus to each fund. Strong risk management framework, adherence to principles of diversification and greater focus on bottom up stock picking to drive alpha have all contributed to this turnaround, which Rajesh is confident will be sustained going forward.
Rajesh is very bullish about the medium to long term prospects for Indian markets on the back of a new economic cycle that has started after a decade long lull. There will always be short term worries – but markets are known to climb walls of worries, he says. The only factor that can alter our macros considerably is if oil prices shoot up way beyond $100 levels and remain elevated.
With all the ground work done over the last 4+ years, lessons learnt in this journey and performance now back on track with strong processes to drive it, Rajesh is hoping for a J curve to propel ITI MF’s growth in the coming years. He thanks all distributors who have stayed with ITI MF in this journey and invites all other distributors to take a fresh look at ITI MF and consider it for their client portfolios.