Kotak Investment Advisors (Infra)

Funds managed

Fund nameAsset ClassLicense
The India Whizdom FundPIPE InvestmentsAIF CAT 3
Kotak Private Equity
Kotak Infrastructure FundInfrastructureIndia focused infrastructure fund domiciled in Singapore.

Kotak Realty Fund-Private Equity Real Estate Fund

Kotak Special Situations-

About

  • Alroy Lobo (CEO-Listed Strategies), Bhavin Shah (Director), Gagan Thareja (Vice-President).
  • Alroy Lobo- Chartered Financial Analyst from CFA Institute as well as ICFAI. He is the first ranker in Masters in Management Studies (Finance) from Sydenham Institute of Management, Mumbai (1988). He is a gold medalist in Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Srinagar (1985). He is also a gold medalist Chartered Financial Analyst from ICFAI (1995). He joined Kotak in 1993 as an equity research analyst. He has covered IT services, pharmaceuticals, and the cement sectors. He spearheaded the formulation of a proprietary framework called ‘WHIZDOM’ at Kotak Institutional Equities, which is a powerful framework for evaluating stocks. 

He has worked in Kotak Securities, Kotak Institutional Equities and Kotak Asset Management. 

  • Bhavin Shah- Co-founder of Kotak India Whizdom Fund (IWF). He has been with the Kotak Group since 2006 across several roles. Prior to joining Kotak, he worked with a Hong Kong-based private equity fund focused on outsourced tech-enabled services. He has completed his Masters’ in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Sydenham College, Mumbai

Investment Philosophy (for firm)

  • Kotak Listed Strategies is focused on long-term wealth creation by primarily investing in mid-sized listed companies in India. It is a dedicated platform specializing in Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) investments. It raised its maiden fund ‘The India Whizdom Fund’ (IWF) in 2016.
  • The Indian equity markets every year throw up a set of companies that deliver superior absolute returns while beating the benchmark indices by a big margin. There are however few companies that consistently deliver such high returns over the 1-year, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, and 15-year time frame.
  • IWF seeks to find these companies in the early stages of their evolution. Many of these companies are in the mid-cap space. Inadequate research and analyst coverage of a number of such companies present an untapped opportunity to leverage a private equity investment approach to identify high potential investments.
  • It is sector agnostic and builds a high conviction concentrated portfolio of companies. 
  • It follows a Buy-and-Hold investment approach keeping in view the risk-reward equation over a 3-5 year investment horizon. The portfolio, therefore, witnesses negligible churn over its investment horizon.

Investment Philosophy (Fund)

  •  The key theme of the Fund is to invest in and patiently hold companies for a long period of time for the compounding effect to play out and for the true value of the investment to be realized.
  • The Fund has consciously chosen to primarily invest in companies with a market capitalization in the range of INR 10 billion (~USD 150 million) to INR 200 billion (~USD 3 billion), based on its analysis.

About funds – Core Infrastructure

CIIF offers an opportunity to international investors to gain an exposure to India’s core infrastructure sectors and benefit from the specialized knowledge, risk management capabilities and asset management expertise of the Kotak Mahindra Group. CIIF’s cornerstone investors include a leading global alternative asset manager and one of the largest banking and financial institutions group of Japan. CIIF also has investments from a policy based financial institution of the Government of Japan, and a leading life insurance company from Asia.

Suman Saha is Head of Kotak Infrastructure Fund at Kotak Investment Advisors Limited. Suman established the Infrastructure Funds management business of the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2013. Mukesh is an Executive Director at Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (“KIAL”) and joined KIAL in 2021 to lead investments in the infrastructure sector. Akshay is the Executive Director of Kotak Infrastructure Fund at Kotak Investment Advisors Limited. Prior to joining the Kotak Mahindra Group, Akshay was at the infrastructure advisory division of KPMG Advisory Arjun joined Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd in March 2020 & brings with him over 9 years’ of experience in project finance and corporate lending. Prior to joining Kotak Infrastructure Fund, Arjun was a part of the Project & Structured Finance Group of Aditya Birla Infrastructure Finance (ABIF) at Aditya Birla Capital for about 5 years

Investment philosophy

Direct investments in infrastructure assets, through selective investments in project companies across a range of infrastructure sub-sectors 

Investments in infrastructure holding companies, which are essentially investment vehicles created by project sponsors to further invest in downstream project companies. Since infrastructure holding companies, at the time of CIIF’s investment, have investments in underlying project assets in different stages of development, construction and operation, CIIF believes that investments in such holding companies offer the maximum opportunities for capital appreciation, as its underlying investments commence operations and mature in the medium to long-term, and thus get re-rated.

Invest in less complex projects that are easier to implement
and operate 

Play in a segment that is distinct from large infrastructure projects that typically raise financing from global financial institutions and/or private equity funds. By focusing on a different segment, CIIF believes it benefits from a better ability to negotiate entry terms.

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Analyst questions

  1. How do you identify companies that deliver high returns, beating the benchmark over once in 1, 3, 5, 10 years?
  2. How do you select companies in the midcap space, based on sectors, or any other factors?

Prepared by – Deep Kalantri

Date – 

Peer reviewed by – Ridhima Jaisinghani

Date – 11th May

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