Mutual funds want hedge-like strategies

Mutual funds, whose plans to launch specialized investment funds (SIFs) are progressing slowly due to a shortage of skilled managers, are hiring expertise for running long-short strategies from alternative investment funds (AIFs), showed a Mint analysis.

- Srushti Vaidya

Mutual funds, whose plans to launch specialized investment funds (SIFs) are progressing slowly due to a shortage of skilled managers, are hiring expertise for running longshort strategies from alternative investment funds (AIFs), showed a Mint analysis.

Suraj Nanda, the fund manager for equity and hybrid SIF at Tata Mutual Fund, was earlier running a long-short AIF at ICICI Prudential AMC. Rajesh Aynor, the investment lead for SIF at Union Mutual Fund, was the head of equities at Prajana Advisors, which runs two longshort AIFs. Axis Mutual Fund hired Nandik Mallik to spearhead its equity and hybrid SIF division from Avendus Capital Alternate Strategies. Others moved the talent from their existing AIF business under the AMC to their SIF division.

While Il mutual funds have received approval to launch SIFs, only five have launched their products: SBI Mutual Fund, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, ITI Mutual Fund, and Tata Mutual Fund.

SIF assets stood at ₹2,932 crore in November 2025, up 45.8% month-on-month, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).