PGIM India has created 3 distinct verticals with their own investment heads, to create capacities and bandwidth to spur growth in each vertical. Vinay Paharia leads the investments team in the mutual funds space, Aniruddha Naha leads the investment team in the alternatives space (PMS and AIFs) and Srinivas Ravuri leads the effort in the offshore advisory space.
PGIM’s new AIF business will complement its existing PMS products, with an initial focus on long-only equity, but with a mandate over time to explore private markets as well.
Aniruddha’s move from MFs to alternatives is aimed at giving him a platform that’s best suited to his investing style – which is ago-anywhere benchmark agnostic high conviction based large bet sizes oriented one, with a penchant to discover exciting stocks in the mid and small caps spaces.
Aniruddha says such a style in a retail fund with a very diverse investor base, often with very different risk profiles, is perhaps debatable– but is very well suited to the PMS and AIF world.
While some pockets of froth have clearly built up in the small caps space, Aniruddha believes earnings growth trajectory in a number of sectors is strong. A time and potentially price correction may be in the offing after a steep rally in mid and small caps, but the underlying bull case is very much intact.
PGIM India gets around 5% of incremental flows in the MF space and about 1% in its newer PMS business. It now aims to replicate the 5% share in its alts business – PMS and AIFs – with its complement of products tailored for HNIs and family offices.