Interviews

Mr. Avnish Jain Head - Fixed Income, Canara Robeco MF Mr. Avnish Jain is the Head of Fixed Income at Canara Robeco Asset Management Company, Robeco’s joint venture in India. Avnish with over 25 years of experience across many segments of the industry is actively involved in managing the fixed income funds which include Canara Robeco Income Fund, Canara Robeco Corporate Bond Fund , Canara Robeco Conservative Hybrid Fund and Canara Robeco Equity Hybrid Fund. Prior to joining Canara Robeco, Avnish was a Senior Fund Manager with ICICI Prudential AMC. His stint also includes, Head of Fixed Income with Deutsche Asset Management, Senior Consultant - Professional Services with Misys Software Solutions, Head of Trading with Yes Bank, Senior Trader-Proprietary Trading with ICICI Bank and Senior Analyst with UTI Securities Exchange Ltd. Avnish Jain has done his B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and post-graduation from IIM Kolkata.

Mr. Vetri Subramaniam Group President & Head of Equity at UTI Asset Management Company Ltd Vetri Subramaniam is Group President & Head of Equity at UTI Asset Management Company Ltd. He has been in this role since January 2017. At UTI MF Vetri leads a team of 17 persons including analysts and fund managers. Vetri has over 26 years of work experience. Prior to joining UTI in January 2017 he was Chief Investment officer at Invesco Asset Management Ltd. He was part of the start-up team at Invesco (then Religare Asset Management) in 2008 and helped establish the firm’s proprietary investment process and the team. During this period the firm established a strong track record. The firm also launched several offshore funds investing into India from Japan, Mauritius & Luxembourg. Vetri started his career at Kotak Mahindra in 1992 after passing out from IIM Bangalore with a PG Diploma in Management. He has worked in equity markets & investment roles at various firms from 1994 including Kotak Mahindra, SSKI & Motilal Oswal. He was also one of the founders of…

Mr R Sivakumar Head - Fixed Income. Axis MF R Sivakumar is the Head - Fixed Income at Axis AMC. Siva has over two decades of experience in the Indian asset management industry working across asset classes and functions. He was part of the start up team at Axis joining in August 2009 looking after products and portfolio management services. He was responsible for leading the launch of Axis' signature & award-winning hybrid funds. In September 2010 he was promoted to Head - Fixed Income. He is responsible for the overall investment strategy, performance and risk management across fixed income investments. Prior to Axis AMC, he was associated with Fortis Investments (formerly ABN AMRO AMC) where he held multiple positions chiefly as a Fund Manager - Fixed Income. He also led products, and - in 2009 - was appointed Chief Operating Officer becoming the youngest person in the asset management industry in that role. He has also worked with Sundaram AMC as Fund Manager – Fixed Income and with Zurich India AMC as Research Analyst. Qualification: - Bachelor of Technology…

Ms. Lakshmi Iyer Chief Investment Officer ( Debt) & Head Products, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited Lakshmi heads fixed income and products team at KMAMC. She has been with the organization since 1999. Lakshmi joined KMAMC as a fund manager, and was responsible for credit research as well as deal execution, managing fund performance across all debt funds and assisting sales in client interaction. She has also been a portfolio specialist, and managed product related initiatives, product pricing and coordination with the funds management and sales team in that role. Prior to Kotak, Lakshmi worked with Credence Analytics Pvt Ltd, as a research analyst where she was tracking corporate bond markets in India and generating research reports. She was also instrumental for conceiving various financial software tools in collaboration with software and technical teams.

Mr. Prashant Pimple Senior Fund Manager – Fixed Income Investments, Reliance MF Prashant Pimple, Senior Fund Manager Fixed Income has been managing various debt funds since 2004. He has total of almost 12 years experience with Reliance Mutual fund managing duration, credit and balanced schemes. In his working career with Reliance Mutual Fund for last 12 years he has been instrumental and responsible for managing various category of funds successfully which has resulted in consistent and better performance of these schemes over the years. Over the years his experience and performance has resulted in confidence of investors in various schemes managed by him leading to some of the largest in its category fund AuMs. Prashant Pimple has been in Indian fixed income markets since 2000 having a rich and varied experience in Bank and Mutual Fund treasuries for last 17 years. Q. What were the key takeaways from the budget for the debt market? Answer: Budget was on expected lines and gave equal focus to fiscal stability and fiscal stimulus, Market’s main concern was about the funding for the capex…

Mr. Manish Gunwani, (CIO – Equity Investments) Reliance AMC Manish graduated from IIT Chennai with a B.Tech and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Bangalore. Manish has 21 years of work experience primarily in equities spanning roles in equity research and fund management. He has also co-founded a technology company in the document management space. During his stint at ICICI Prudential AMC, he managed two flagship funds of the mutual fund whose assets grew from $1bn to $5bn in 5 years. One of the funds grew from $50m to $3bn becoming the second largest fund in the industry. As deputy CIO he was instrumental in various aspects of asset management including setting up research processes, product strategy, developing talent of the team etc. Manish has immense experience in equity research and has also spent two years working in a portfolio management company whose focus was midcaps. Having traveled extensively across the world, Manish has attended many global investment conferences and seminars.

Mr. Santosh Kamath Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Franklin Templeton, Fixed Income in India Mr. Kamath oversees the fixed income functions of the locally managed and distributed debt products. Mr. Kamath earned his M.B.A. from XLRI, Jamshedpur in the year 1993 and his Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronics and telecom from REC, Bhopal. Debt Fund Manager Questions: Q. Please evaluate the current debt market scenario? How is the liquidity in the markets? Answer: The inflation trajectory appears to be headed south mainly due to lower food and crude oil prices. CPI inflation for the month of December came at 18-month low of 2.19%, which is considerably below RBI’s revised inflation projection of H2FY19 of 2.7-3.2%. Core inflation also moderated to 5.70%. The correction in crude oil prices may help keep the inflation low, along with the winter crop yield. Improving consumption demand and expansion of industrial activity augurs well for the growth of the economy. Higher capacity utilization in select sectors, along with better demand conditions show improvement in economic conditions. Lower oil prices, if sustained, may…

Anand Radhakrishnan, CFA Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer – EME India, Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd. Mr. Anand Radhakrishnan is MD & Chief Investment Officer - Equity for Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd. Mr. Radhakrishnan is responsible for overseeing all the local equity funds. His responsibility includes mentoring all the portfolio managers apart from continuing to be the Portfolio Manager for some of the key products. He manages Franklin India Bluechip Fund, Franklin India Equity Fund and Franklin India Technology Fund. Also he is co-portfolio manager for Franklin India Focused Equity Fund and Franklin Build India Fund. Mr. Radhakrishnan has been in the investment management industry since 1994. He started his career with FT in 2004. His past assignments include Fund Manager, with Sundaram Mutual Fund for 8 years; Deputy Manager, Equity Research with SBI Funds Management Ltd. Mr. Radhakrishnan earned his Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1994. He earned his Bachelor of Technology degree, specializing in Chemical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai in 1990. He is a…