The Hindu Business Line : Money Talk

Mr Atul Nishar, Founder and Chairman, Hexaware Technologies, appears as adept at managing his investments as he is at promoting and growing IT companies under his active supervision. Read the investing insights of this professionally qualified Chartered Accountant, who also holds a degree in law:

When did you start investing?

Around 28 years ago, when I was doing CA. I had a senior colleague, a CA, who used to go to the stock market every day during the lunch break. I would go with him and observe whatever trading he did. I learnt my initial lessons in investing from him.

Did you start with investment in real-estate before you moved on to direct investing?

First, I did not have a large sum to invest in real-estate. Investing in equity gave me the flexibility of easy entry and exit based on liquidity. Till date, whatever real-estate that has been bought has been only for business purposes.

Have you followed any asset allocation pattern for your own finances and how has it changed over the years? Are you systematic in investing?

Apart from investing in my own businesses, whenever I had surplus funds, I would invest in shares of listed companies. For the short term, say, three-four months, I would invest in bank fixed deposits. Personally, I don't favour debt instruments, but it is wise to invest based on one's risk appetite and, accordingly, divide investments between equity and debt instruments.

Which was the first stock you picked, at what age and did you make money on it? Any learning from that experience?

As I recollect, at the age of 23-24, I bought shares of Reliance, Great Eastern Shipping and Indian Rayon. I made money on all of them. Reliance shares grew so much by way of bonus and rights that for several years I sold some shares whenever I needed money. Investing in growth-oriented companies with high quality management always gives the best return. In the last decade, I have had similar experience with Infosys shares.

Do you have any specific return expectations on your portfolio?

My investment manager has to ensure that the return is higher than market, mainly measured in terms of Sensex.

Do you entrust funds to a financial planner/portfolio manager or handle it yourself?

A mix of mutual funds, direct investment and portfolio management schemes, in that order.

Mutual funds is the safest investment. One can select a mutual fund based on track record of over two-three years. A research team and qualified fund managers do all the work for a small fee. Mutual funds allow easy entry and exit as also a high degree of transparency in operations. Investing directly in company shares should be done only if one knows about those companies. Direct investment based on hearsay or tips carries high risk. While there are some good portfolio management schemes, they have a tax disadvantage.

Mutual funds performance that you are impressed with...

I do not like to invest in new mutual fund schemes as they take time to get fully invested. It makes sense to invest in an old scheme where one sees past performance over a longer period. I generally check the scheme performance on moneycontrol.com and then decide.

Krishnan Thiagarajan

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