Funds managed
| Fund name | Asset Class | License |
| VARANIUM Dynamic AIF(Started in Nov, 2016) | Hedge fund (Open Ended, Long Short Equity Fund) | SEBI AIF Cat 3 |
| Varanium NexGen Fund | Venture Capital | SEBI AIF Cat 1 |
| Varanium Hospitality Fund | Theme Based – Private Equity | SEBI AIF Cat 2 |
(Source – PMS AIF World-https://www.pms-aif.com/investments/varanium-dynamic-aif/ )
AIF CAT 1 and 2
About the AMC
- Founded in1990 (Source- https://www.pms-aif.com/investments/varanium-dynamic-aif/)
- Varanium Capital is a Boutique Investment Advisory firm that offers asset management products to clients in India and outside India across asset classes- debt, listed equity, private equity and venture capital.
- Various products offered by Varanium are below:
- Portfolio Management Services: Varanium Capital Advisors Private Limited (VCAPL) is a SEBI licensed Portfolio Manager. VCAPL endeavours to provide Investment solutions and advisory to HNIs and institutional clients through a basket of customised investment products across a wide spectrum of traditional and Alternative Asset classes.
- Offshore Advisory: VCAPL is the sole and exclusive Investment Advisor to Varanium Asset Management, Mauritius (SEBI registered FII). Varanium Asset Management offers US Dollar denominated investment opportunities across Debt, Equity and Structured notes through its funds to offshore investors.
- Venture Capital: Our first fund in this category is ‘Varanium NexGen Fund’, a Cat-I AIF. This is an Early Stage Fund focusing on FinTech start-ups. This portfolio is suitable for investors who have high risk appetite and seek to earn high returns.
- Hospitality Fund: – This is a unique fund, focusing on the hotels and hospitality sector. Launched as a Cat-II AIF, the fund will invest into running hotels/ hospitality assets, mostly revenue earning assets.
- Alternate Investments Asset: – This strategy primarily invests in unlisted debt/equity securities/instruments, units/ shares of private equity, venture capital and/or alternative investment funds and in any other securities/ instruments/ products, as may be permissible under the Regulations.
- Disclosure Document in website, As of 31st March 2019: Number of clients – 289 and Funds Managed – Rs 356.73 crore (Discretionary total portfolio value)
Sourcehttps://varaniumgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Disclosure-Document_Varanium_Aug-2019.pdf
- Key staff:
- T.S.Anantakrishnan – Over 25 years of experience in Portfolio and Risk Management across global asset management firm such as Goldman Sachs and Shumway Capital. In India, his previous experience has been as a CEO of Religare Portfolio Managers, the PMS business of Religare Global Asset Management.Prior to which he headed Portfolio Management business for Prime Securities.
Professional Qualification: MBA-NYU Stern, BE-IIT (Roorkee), CFA & FRM
- Manish Srivastava – Manish leads the Equity team. He has over 25 years of experience in portfolio and risk management. Prior to joining Varanium, he was working as a Management Consultant with Amala Management Singapore Pte Ltd. He has earlier worked with HSBC Global Asset Management Fund, IIFL Capital Pte Ltd and CIMB Securities (Singapore Pte Ltd). Manish is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad & IIT Varanasi . He is also qualified CFA Charter Holder from CFA Institute, USA.
- Aparajit Bhandarkar – Aparajit leads the Venture Capital Practice at the firm. He has more than 15 years of experience in Investment Banking, Investor Relations and startup investments. Before joining Varanium, he was CEO of Dice Fintech Ace- a Fintech Venture fund. Before that he was Head Strategy, Jio Payments Bank and various senior roles at Yes Bank such as President, Merchant Banking and Head of Investor Relation. He is a qualified CA, CFA and MBA from NYU stern.
Investment Philosophy (for firm)
- Started in Nov, 2016 (Source- https://pmsbazaar.com/Visitor/AIFComparison )
- Fund Theme Source – PMS AIF World (https://www.pms-aif.com/investments/varanium-dynamic-aif/ )
• Absolute return fund, aiming 15-18% annual return
• Follows various long-short strategies into Indian Equity
• Tolerance limit for Max drawdown 2.5%
Media
- Company’s Website Media Coverage – This mainly includes discussion on COVID, CAT 1 fund and CAT 2 fund, https://varaniumgroup.com/media-coverage/
Title – Varanium Cap Closes: 200-cr AIF Fintech Start-up Fund
Media platform name – The Hindu Business Line Article
Date – Oct 3, 2019
Summary – I think it’s mostly related to AIF CAT 1 Venture capital fund.
Title –Varanium Capital, CEO: We Would Move If Emerging Markets Move | Trading Hour | CNBC TV18
Media platform name – CNBC TV18 YouTube
Date – Sep 5, 2018
Summary – TS Anantakrishnan of Varanium Capital Advisors shares his views on the market performance.
Title – Stock Market Investment Strategy with Varanium Capital Advisors TS Anantakrishnan | CNBC TV18
Media platform name – CNBC TV18 YouTube
Date – Jul 10, 2018
Summary – Find the media is Q&A format:
Q- Market is reaching all time high, how would you position your portfolio?
A- We have structured our portfolio in such a way that there are 2 parts to the portfolio
- In the first part, we look for consistency of earnings – earnings growth visibility, good ROE, EBITDA Margins quiet stable, valuations may be a tad on the expensive side. Focus in on sectors like the consumption, Auto, Retail, FMCG, Consumer Discretionary and private bank
- In the 2nd part, we look at sectors like IT and Pharma more on the export side given the rupee depreciation and turnaround in the sectors
- Mid cap and large cap both
- Title – See Lot Of Opportunities Outside Nifty Stocks: Anantakrishnan
Media platform name – NDTV YouTube
Date – Mar 14, 2017
Summary – I think the discussion is on short term view.
Analyst questions
- L/S funds will typically have a 40-60% net long exposure, which is considered to be beneficial as markets generally trend upward over time but there are other strategies like long biased or short biased or market neutral strategies. What is your strategy?
- What approach do you follow – Top-down or Bottom-up Approach?
- L/S funds require picking stocks carefully, typically overvalued or undervalued search. What is your strategy and how do you generate alpha?
- Why tolerances limit for Max drawdown is 2.5%? Why only 2.5%?
Prepared by- Sonal Narwani
Review- In progress by Rashika Bhatia
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