Asset management firms — including private equity, portfolio managers and mutual funds — are believed to be increasing their presence and augmenting their teams in the emerging markets.

In India, companies such as Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Canara Robeco, Aditya Birla Financial Services, and Helix Investment Advisors are working towards expanding their bases and presence in India.

Goldman Sachs recently appointed Mr Sonjoy Chatterjee as its new India Chairman, following the promotion of Mr L. Brooks Entwistle as Chairman of South-east Asia and Head of Investment Banking for that region. Mr Entwistle is largely credited with turning around the India business for the banking major. Helix Investment Advisors appointed Mr Andrey Purushottam as its Executive Director.

“There is huge potential in India as less than 2 per cent of the population participates in the stock markets. There is more disposable income at hand and there is huge opportunity for these firms,” said Mr E. Balaji, Chief Executive Officer, Mo Foi Randstad, a global executive search firm.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group is also looking to ramp up its private equity team in India with the inclusion of Mr Amitvikram Sharma as additional Investment Director and Mr P. H. Ravikumar joining them as Independent Director on its Board of Directors. The group has also opened an office in Dubai this February.

“The opportunities in India are very bright. After the Japan issue, there will be a major influx of funds into India and Hong Kong. Also, any service sector is dependent on man power, which makes up almost 50-65 per cent of the business costs,” said Mr Roshan Nazareth, Managing Director, Hi Profile Consulting, a management and strategy consulting firm.

The mutual fund asset management companies in India are also ramping up their core teams. There are around 44 mutual fund houses in the industry today. While many officials of fund houses have been given promotions within their own organisations, there is quite a bit of churn, with many officials crossing over from one fund house to another.

BNP Paribas Mutual Fund which took over Fortis Mutual Fund last year has already appointed Mr Uday Suri, who was earlier with Fidelity Mutual Fund. Another entrant into the fund house was Mr Anand Shah as Chief Investment Officer. Mr Shah, was earlier Head of Equities with Canara Robeco Mutual fund (which then appointed Mr Soumendra Nath Lahiri, as its Head of Equities from April 2011. Mr Lahiri, prior to this, was Senior Vice President and Co-Head, Equities with DSP Black Rock Asset Management Company.)

“When markets do well, people are inclined to move to greener pastures,” said a mutual fund analyst.

Fund Manager

Retaining talent is an important part of the mutual fund business, as many a time, a particular fund maybe known by its manager or rather, the success of the fund maybe linked to its fund manager. In such cases, the exit of that fund manager can have an impact on the scheme and its investors. Fund houses may insist on their system being process-driven rather than people-driven, but most fund analysts argue that a fund's success cannot just be in the manner in which it is run, but who it is run by. “If the new fund manager of a multi-cap fund is known to have a large cap bias, as opposed to the earlier fund manager who was known for his expertise across all segments, then that will definitely impact the underlying assets of a fund, in a negative or positive way, depending on market conditions,” said a mutual fund analyst.

Though fund analysts agree that it is difficult to evaluate the immediate impact of a change in the fund management team, they believe that it would take anywhere between 6 months to a year for any difference to be noticeable.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW