Slow, Steady And Growing

- Pravin Palande

When he started Mirae Asset Mutual Fund (MAMF) in India in October 2007, Gopal Agrawal’s first objective was to find a fund manager who would think in micro detail. Agrawal, who was with SBI Mutual Fund, was approached by the Indian subsidiary of Mirae Asset Global Investments, the South Korean financial firm, to build a mutual fund business. The firm provided a seed capital of $50 million. At the time, an asset management company (AMC) in India required a minimum capital of just Rs 10 crore ($1.6 million), which has now been revised to Rs 50 crore. Simply put, MAMF had the arsenal—or the financial muscle—to become a powerful fund house.

For that, Agrawal also needed the right people. He had his sights set on Neelesh Surana, who was working with ASK Group’s portfolio management business along with the star fund manager Bharat Shah.

Agrawal liked Surana’s approach to stock picking and asked him to come on board. It was an unusual choice. The mid-2000s were a period of star fund managers, while Surana had a low-key profile. But that was the point: MAMF planned to take a process-driven approach to fund management.

MAMF’s offer was tempting for Surana who was eager to try the mutual fund platform. “It was a challenge I wanted to take up,” recalls Surana, 48, who joined as chief investment officer–equity in January 2008. Agrawal, who quit MAMF in April this year and moved to Tata Mutual Fund to head its equity investment team, became the overall investment head of the AMC.