This was our first introduction to the fund and the fund manager, Sashi Reddy. The fund is a concentrated portfolio of between 30 and 60 stocks, and currently it holds 37 stocks. The fund has been soft closed but has recently re-opened to new money. Like the China story in the early noughties, this is very much about India being the next China and how that will develop over the next decade. It will appeal to investors who want to take a single country bet and are prepared to leave their money invested over a long period of time.
Sashi started by explaining that he has been managing money in the region for a number of years. From a macro prospective the country is weak. There are always problems and it is badly managed by politicians. Whatever people say his view is that the government has little control over what happens. Nothing ever get’s done. Pollution is a problem in the big cities, diabetes is an increasing issue and then there is conflict with the borders to Pakistan and China. So, looking from a top-down view there are question marks as to why you would invest in India….read more