The Hindu Business Line : MF sector witnessing job churn as opportunities rise

IF the generals leave their commands, the foot soldiers will switch sides. That is happening - and how! - in the asset management industry, given the rampant job-changes.

With a number of new entities set to test the waters and the older players poaching actively, MF executives seeking fresh opportunities never had it so good, say sources who monitor these developments.

Mr Anup Maheshwari, Mr Sanjay Sinha, Mr Vinay Kulkarni and Mr Sandip Sabharwal recently joined the league of gentlemen who have moved to rival companies. And these are just some of the names on the fund management side — large-scale reshuffle is happening on the sales and marketing fronts too.

Mr U.K. Sinha, CEO of India's No. 1 fund house, UTI MF, said, "such changes are inevitable... they reflect the resilience of the (asset management) industry". Others agree, referring indirectly to larger pay-packets and bigger responsibilities that are being offered by contemporary outfits.

For the record, Mr Maheshwari has left DSP Merrill Lynch to join HSBC MF. Mr Sinha and Mr Kulkarni both quit UTI to join SBI MF and Deutsche MF respectively.

On the sales side, Mr Sanjeev Patnaik has put in his papers at Sundaram MF to join the former Kotak Mahindra MF CEO, Mr Ajay Bagga's newly-formed group.

At the moment, of course, the talk of the town is Mr Ravi Mehrotra, President, Franklin Templeton, who, sources say, is set to join AIG after spending well over a decade with FT and the erstwhile Kothari Pioneer MF.

In recent times, the better-known job-changers have included fund managers like Mr Rushabh Sheth (who quit Kotak), Mr B.P. Singh (Deutsche) and Mr Sandip Sabharwal (SBI). Besides Mr Bagga, the other CEO who have moved recently is Mr Krishnamurthy Vijayan; he quit JM MF after a fairly long innings.

The shifts have, in a way, triggered promotions within the fund houses concerned. Both Kotak and JM, for instance, have re-designated key people as CEOs - Mr Sandesh Kirkire, the debt specialist, and Ms Dipti Neelakantan. The latter has been with the JM Financial group since 1981.

"This job is a bit different in the sense that a CEO has to address so many constituencies - including trustees, external auditors and the like," Mr Kirkire remarked when asked to spell out the difference between his earlier mandate and the present assignment.

The new entrants have started recruiting too, MF circles point out, referring to Fidelity, Temasek and Optimix. Fidelity, for instance, has already put together a fairly large squad to advance its plans in India.

Ms Ashu Suyash, Head of Business, said, "We started out with fewer personnel when we launched our first product earlier this year. Now we operate from more locations - seven compared to four. Our team has grown in tandem."

Sources also allude to the recent exit of Alliance Capital, which offloaded its funds to Birla Sun Life, adding that former Alliance Cap executives are already making their presence felt in other companies.

In Kolkata, for instance, Mr Sanjay Roy, who headed its local operations, has last month moved to Tata MF.

Mr Sinha of UTI MF has an interesting, if not unusual, take on these matters. "Movements among funds are all right. It actually shows that the companies they were working for were so good that competitors badly wanted them on their rolls."

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