Large caps are better than fairly valued: Bajaj Finserv AMC CEO

CEO Ganesh Mohan says consumption remains a compelling theme in Indian markets even if the sector faces short-term bearish sentiments

- DIPAK MONDAL

BAJAJ Finserv AMC, a one-year-old mutual fund company, is trying to grow in what looks like an already crowded place – there are already 44 mutual funds in India with top 10 mutual funds in asset size accounting for 77% of the industry assets. CEO Ganesh Mohan in an interaction with TNIE explains the AMC's strategies to grow assets under management (AuM).

What are the strategies to grow assets in the crowded AMC business?

The advantage we had was that we were setting the fund house from scratch, and our investment team started with a new investment philosophy. We put together all three possible sources of alpha. And they are the information edge, which is better quality information than the crowd; a quantitative edge, which is better tools, models, analytical tools to assess the data; and behavioural edge, which is, how do you make the right decisions based on the same information and tools.

Can you explain the behavioural edge that you claim you have?

Everybody has access to the same information, so it's a very thin edge. Even the quantitative edge, while today there is some room to differentiate, my own assessment is, in three to five years, this is going to become a pretty standard, the way technology is developing. AI, ML-way of new modelling will get commoditised very soon. Then the third edge becomes important to really generate alpha, which is your behavioural edge.

Explain the uniqueness of your existing funds?