Best equity mutual fund managers 2024: Top 10 managers ranked in balancing risk-reward by ET Wealth-PrimeInvestor.in
The stewards overseeing the burgeoning equity assets at India’s mass-market mutual fund companies have had contrasting fortunes in recent years. A largely upward ride in the stock market has served as the wind in the sails for a few asset managers, even as others have been left behind. Those pursuing a value-led approach have ridden the crest of the wave, while those chasing growth and quality are nursing their wounds. To be sure, investing mavens adopting either style have had to fight different battles. The value-driven fund managers have had to dig deeper to ensure their hunt for discounts did not lead them to value traps. The growth-led fund managers have had to maintain resolve and stay true to convictions amid a testing climate. Both sets of fund managers have leaned on years of experience to guide their funds through the rapidly evolving, dynamic market environment.#sr_widget.onDemand p, #stock_pro.onDemand p{font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.28;} .onDemand .live_stock{left:17px;padding:1px 3px 1px 5px;font-size:12px;font-weight:600;line-height:18px;top:9px} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{margin:0 auto 0;} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{color: #024d99;margin-top:10px;} #sr_widget.onDemand .crypto .live_stock .lb-icon{8px 6px 5px 3px !important} #sr_widget.crypto.onDemand a.text{border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;padding-bottom:5px;display:block;width:100%} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc .text p, #stock_pro.onDemand .sr_desc .text p{font-size:12px;font-weight:400;}
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In this year’s Best Fund Manager rankings, investment research platform PrimeInvestor helps us identify 10 fund managers who have delivered superior outcomes on a risk-adjusted basis to investors. Managing risk has emerged as the central pillar of investment processes at fund houses in the past few years. Fund managers now champion risk mitigation, downside protection and resilience over individual stock selection. This allows the funds to deliver better investor experience across market cycles.
Also read | Top 10 equity mutual fund managers 2024: Ranking methodology
TOP WEALTH CREATORS OF 2024
Rajeev Thakkar
Age: 52 YEARS | Experience: 31 YEARS
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PROFILE
Thakkar retains the top spot in our annual fund manager ranking. His continued run as the premier asset manager owes only partly to the market’s rotation towards value in recent years. An unwavering focus on downside containment, business fundamentals and avoiding mistakes has put the flagship fund in a league of its own. While it is not always among the chart-toppers, the fund manages to edge its peers over market cycles owing to its risk-led lens. Thakkar’s stance often leads him to offbeat ideas, but he shuns value traps, particularly amid the recent market frenzy. He is firmly committed to a ‘buy and hold’ approach, running many of his positions over several years. He uses cash tactically, choosing to preserve his wicket rather than swing the bat at every ball bowled. This has armed his fund with a sizeable war chest to deploy when the markets provide an opportunity. While assets have ballooned to nearly Rs.90,000 crore, Thakkar shows comfort in manoeuvring the fund given its positioning.
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My reading of the market scenario...
The valuations for Indian stocks have been elevated for a while. The fall in stock prices in January 2025 has improved things a bit, but stocks continue to be expensive. There are pockets of undervalued stocks and pockets of exuberance. Small- and mid-cap valuations are steep, while valuations of large-cap stocks are more reasonable. Investors should moderate their return expectations over the next 1-2 years.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
One cannot depend solely on fund inflows from SIPs or otherwise to keep stock prices up all the time. Company fundamentals have to keep pace with stock prices. In the absence of earnings growth and appropriate valuations, a sharp rise in stock prices creates an environment for future losses.
Niket Shah
Age: 39 YEARS | Experience: 17 YEARS
PROFILE
Known for its concentrated portfolios, Motilal Oswal AMC has continued to back its conviction bets amid a runaway market. Fund manager Niket Shah puts faith in pursuing deeper research in a limited set of businesses, rather than adopting a ‘spray and pray’ approach. Shah is convinced that one needs to show conviction to buy and have patience to see the story play out. This aggressive sizing of bets in a few outperformers has contributed to a strong upside capture. He has mainly pursued structural opportunities, where growth visibility is strong and potential for surprises is low. This has kept him away from many cyclicals that have been among the market’s darlings in recent years, but are struggling now. Shah has sold many winners of the previous cycle. He has gradually adopted a more defensive stance, sharply raising the cash position in his mid-cap and flexi-cap strategies.
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My reading of the market scenario...
We expect mid caps and small caps to remain under pressure till the time valuation reset doesn’t happen. This market correction is temporary and will improve valuations, offering investors a great long-term entry opportunity.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
Be ahead of the curve. In our business, there are three important elements—vision to see, courage to buy, and patience to hold.It’s very important to know what not to buy. AMC business is all about risk management.Buying is overrated and selling is underrated. It’s important to know what and when to buy, but when to sell is probably more important.We all make mistakes, and it’s important to recognise them early to minimise losses.
Shridatta Bhandwaldar
Age: 44 YEARS | Experience: 17 YEARS
PROFILE
Bhandwaldar’s distinct growth tilt has put him at odds with the market’s preferences for value and cyclical names in recent years. However, he has stuck to his core principles, emphasising on businesses with scalability, compounding ability and capital efficiency. This has led him to steer clear of the frenzy around deep cyclicals like commodities businesses and PSU companies, diluting fund returns. Bhandwaldar has remained adamant that companies showing superior execution tend to deliver more sustainable outcomes. His conviction is now playing out as investors have again started differentiating between strong and weak businesses. Companies that stand on their own legs are coming to the fore in delivering earnings growth. Bhandwaldar admits he could have focused more on conviction bets instead of diversifying. Yet, his adept handling of multiple fund mandates showcases his execution skills across diverse investment arenas.
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My reading of the market scenario...
The market is adjusting downward as earnings normalise, with last year’s excesses largely corrected. We expect earnings to align with low- to mid-teen consensus estimates by 2026-27. Valuations have started gradually falling in place in some parts of the market.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
Easy capital availability for businesses is shortening advantages of incumbents, leading to higher competitive intensity as compared to the past. Value destruction can be faster if you don’t pay close attention to this aspect.The integration of financial markets, shortening of business cycles and the shift of market participants towards non-institutions mean a world of higher volatility.
* Refers to the individual fund’s contribution to the fund manager’s combined virtual NAV.Manish Gunwani
Age: 52 YEARS | Experience: 29 YEARS
PROFILE
After successfully engineering a turnaround during his previous stint at Nippon India AMC, Gunwani has again proven his mettle at Bandhan AMC. Several equity strategies, such as Bandhan Core Equity and Bandhan Flexi Cap, have shown a visible uptick in performance under his watch. He believes that a fund manager should be a risk manager more than anything else. Drawing on his vast experience, he shapes portfolio construction while keeping it aligned with major macro policy shifts. Gunwani admits his portfolio churn has gone up in recent years, and insists the markets now demand greater agility as price discovery happens fast. He doesn’t shy away from taking short-term tactical calls to capitalise on running themes in a calibrated manner. He supplements this with a top-down approach to identify sectors and themes that are poised to do well, and then drills down into stock-specific opportunities.
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My reading of the market scenario...
We believe nearterm returns may be muted due to rising global uncertainties, protectionism, high valuations, and limited scope for fiscal and monetary policy stimulus in India.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
With increasing market complexity and pricing efficiency, one must be open to quickly adjusting one’s views on a stock. Tracking other markets, such as interest rates and currencies, helps in forming a top-down view on equities.
Chandraprakash Padiyar
Age: 47 YEARS | Experience: 24 YEARS
PROFILE
Padiyar has steered two funds during this time frame: Tata Small Cap and Tata Large & Mid Cap. It is the small-cap fund where Padiyar’s capabilities have shone, clocking strong performance in its category. A strictly bottom-up investor, he primarily targets businesses with re-rating potential, or companies that can deliver higher earnings than what the market expects and are, therefore, mispriced. Padiyar remains highly conscious of the valuations and liquidity risks in this space, carefully managing capital deployment. The small-cap fund has previously gated inflows to avoid investing at unrealistic valuations. It has also increased cash positions when market conditions warrant caution. Padiyar has also booked profits in overheated stocks, reshuffling the portfolio amid sharp re-rating in several bets. Protecting the downside is a key pillar of his approach, resulting in a strong risk-reward profile that stands out among peers.
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My reading of the market scenario...
The market has shifted from extreme optimism to heightened caution, driven by global uncertainties and earnings downgrades across most businesses. We believe valuations have selectively become reasonable in various segments, especially financials (banks). Additionally, we see room for earnings growth to reach healthy double digits from 2025-26 onwards.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
Indian entrepreneurs are focusing on R&D and targeting global markets, rather than being focused on the Indian market. This change in mindset is a big takeaway for me.Global investors are warming up to India. If we continue on our path of consistency, there is a high probability of India being a preferred investment destination.
Dinesh Balachandran
Age: 44 YEARS | Experience: 22 YEARS
PROFILE
Balachandran is another fund manager who emphasises on margin of safety in his investing pursuits. This puts him squarely in the value camp, a badge that SBI MFs equity strategies wear with conviction. He is fully aware that his contra stance entails diving into bets knowing that they may not be perfect businesses by standard metrics. He puts basic hygiene checks in place to minimise the risks. He is conservative in sizing his bets, cognisant of the higher uncertainty bands in such businesses. He keenly follows economic cycles to enter positions early, ensuring risk is in his favour. He also takes cash calls generously, preferring to wait for better opportunities to emerge rather than participate in an overheated market. He has pulled off this approach with flying colours in both SBI Contra and SBI Long Term Equity for the past few years.
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My reading of the market scenario...
The past few years have seen a significant amount of liquidity come into the equity market, driving up valuations across the board. Over the past few months, we have finally started seeing some of the valuation froth go out of the market. But it feels like we are still in the early-to-mid innings of this valuation reset cycle. While the long-term India story remains intact, investors need to temper down their short-term return expectations from the equity market.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
Everything is cyclical in the market. While the amplitude of the cycle can vary across sectors, one needs to be careful about extrapolating current trends for any stock or sector.Resist FOMO. This sounds very simple, but is very difficult to implement.
Mittul Kalawadia
Age: 42 YEARS | Experience: 19 YEARS
PROFILE
Kalawadia harnesses the contrarian stance that ICICI Prudential AMC is known for. He is willing to bet against the prevailing market narratives if he thinks these are misjudged or are only transient, when others believe these to be structural. He believes in the premise that bad news provides a good price and that sharp bets on such ideas can yield big payoffs. For instance, his contrarian bet on the energy sector, anticipating a shift from excess supply to shortage, has significantly benefited his funds. This style demands that he identify and bet on sectors at the bottom of their cycles and move out at their top. Kalawadia has steered both the dividend yield fund and ELSS fund with distinction. The dividend yield has seen improved margin of outperformance since 2023, even as many other value-focused funds normalised in their performance after the Covid-19 performance spike. He believes in pursuing businesses where the dividends are sustainable.
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My reading of the market scenario...
High valuations, downward earnings revisions, and uncertainty in global trade practices will keep the market volatile. However, volatility benefits long-term investors. They should adopt dynamic asset allocation or consider hybrid funds that adjust allocation strategically.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
One must avoid topof-the-cycle or frothyvaluation stocks and sectors. They tend to either create permanent absolute losses or take away a lot of time from the compounding process, lowering longterm returns.Changing market-cap allocation in the portfolio is also an equally important tool, like asset allocation, to improve long-term returns.R. Srinivasan
Age: 54 YEARS | Experience: 31 YEARS
PROFILE
As a highly risk-averse, valuation-conscious fund manager, the market excesses of the past few years, particularly in the small-cap space, have been jarring for Srinivasan. He confesses that his conservative stance makes it tough to outperform in a buoyant market. However, his emphasis remains on ensuring enough liquidity in funds and maintaining a margin of safety. Srinivasan’s expertise lies particularly in identifying and nurturing small-cap companies with high growth potential. The small-cap fund has often put a lid on inflows when deployment becomes tricky. Srinivasan also does not shy away from taking cash calls when opportunities are scarce. He is comfortable not participating in the last mile of a bull run, rather than compromise on portfolio health. Both SBI Small Cap and SBI Focused Equity struggled to keep up with peers during the rally, but are now exhibiting superior resilience in the market downturn.
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My reading of the market scenario...
Our in-house asset allocation model, which applies to the Nifty, shifted to neutral in January, from a 60% underweight position against a 50:50 equity-debt benchmark. Within the market, we are negative on the lower end of the capitalisation curve due to its significant outperformance over the last few years. In terms of factors, we believe quality and growth should make a comeback this year.
Biggest lesson from recent years...
The re-rating of value occurs when returns revert closer to the cost of equity.
Taher Badshah
Age: 55 YEARS | Experience: 31 YEAR
PROFILE
Badshah has buttressed his credentials as a proven fund manager by building a robust investment process at Invesco MF. He leveraged the post-Covid transition to refine the fund house’s investment framework. By breaking broader sectors into sub-categories, he added granularity, enabling better identification of companies with unique industry positioning. For the Invesco Contra Fund, he distinguished between early and late turnaround candidates in his search for turnaround opportunities. Badshah’s funds started reflecting more conviction in the top ideas. This sharpened focus led to better outcomes. Towards late 2023, despite the apprehension around overvaluation and deceleration in earnings growth, Badshah felt confident about growth continuity and chose to remain constructive. His stance allowed him to push the growth envelope in his funds well into 2024.
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My reading of the market scenario...
Recent global and domestic events, and the consequent market correction have broadened the opportunity set for investors with a mediumterm perspective. We expect India’s earnings cycle to gather momentum towards the latter half of 2025, in turn driving investment returns.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
A structured investment framework and disciplined investment method is critical to institutional money management. There is no substitute to an open-minded and balanced approach that recognises we do not have full control over investment outcomes.
Vinay Paharia
Age: 44 YEARS | Experience: 21 YEARS
PROFILE
Paharia is another fund manager mending investment processes in a new environment after proving capabilities in a previous stint. Following his success in turning around performance at Union AMC, early signs are pointing at an improved return profile in PGIM India’s equity strategies. Adamant that the magnitude of underperformance of growth companies in recent years is an aberration, Paharia has stuck to his focus on high growth, high quality franchises. He points to a study by PGIM MF, which suggests that the companies demonstrating higher-than-average growth (in profitability) as well as quality (return on equity) tend to significantly outperform the market over three- to five-year investment horizons. Apart from introducing robust quality filters to improve stock selection, Paharia has implemented a comprehensive fair value framework for assessing value. He has taken comfort in diversifying the portfolios, choosing not to deviate substantially in sector positioning.
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My reading of the market scenario...
Currently, markets are a tale of two halves. Large-caps are attractively priced while mid- and smallcaps are trading at rich valuations. High-growth and highquality companies are reasonably priced, while low-growth and low-quality companies are in a bubble zone.
Biggest lessons from recent years...
Markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent. Hence, you should not bet ‘all in’ against the markets, even if you think you are right. Independent thinking may underperform in the short term, but wins in the long term. History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Market cycles of boom and bust keep repeating with regularity and should not be forgotten by investors.
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This story originally appeared on: India Times - Author:Faqs of Insurances
