 
Prashant
Jain ANOOP
BHASKER RITESH
JAIN |
Quality first Siva
Subramanian plays safe, no matter if he misses out on the initial
run Despite his spectacular track record in managing funds, K N Siva Subramanian, senior vice-president, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, is an anti-thesis to the Gordon Gekko image of a fund manager. On the contrary, he portrays the image of a middle-class family man with limited aspirations and firm values. For him, investing in stocks markets is not a passion - just a job that he has to do with all the sincerity he can. And it is probably this dispassionate approach to investing that makes Siva take a balanced view even when the markets are in a state of irrational exuberance. It is this balance, which is central to his success. Siva follows a blend of growth and value style of investing. “Since most companies in India have still not attained their full potential, focusing on growth can bring in rich rewards” says Siva. That apart, one thing Siva is certain about is that qualitative factors are just as important as quantitative aspects. Because of quality concerns, Siva may have missed out on quite a few opportunities like the retail story and in recent times the real estate story. But he is unperturbed. “Yes we have missed out on some success stories because the quality of growth was not very clear to us,” says Siva adding in the same breath that the final word is yet not out on many of these areas and “given the potential for growth there will be opportunities to capture the big wave even in future.” For instance, in the retail sector the early birds on the bourses have seen their stock prices soar enormously but the business itself is just about unfolding. It is too early to say who will turn out to be the winner with mega players like Reliance and even the foreign firms yet to enter the game. “We like to be confident of the quality and don’t mind waiting for things to stabilise and improve before investing,” says Siva. His fixation with quality stems from the fact that Siva likes to invest only with a long term view. “If the management and business are good, one can hold on to a stock even if the stock valuations run ahead of fundamentals for a while,” says Siva. However, if you are not sure of quality you have to be on your toes all the time and churn your portfolio often which we don’t like to do. If this means, missing on short term opportunities, so be it – one can’t capture all the opportunities in the market, after all, he adds. It is because of this approach that one does not find an elaborate list of multiple-baggers in his portfolio. Instead, it is a long list of stocks that have raced ahead of the market consistently. The whole bunch of top-rung IT companies, and a clutch of consumer companies such as Marico, Goodlass Nerolac just to name a few of his winners in recent times. Modesty is his middle name. Ask him to recount his most successful calls, he would say the mistakes far outweigh the successful calls. Ask how he feels about being rated as one of the best fund managers, he would say it is simply because we have been around for a long time - there are several others who are doing a lot better. Hailing
from a family that runs an auto ancillary business in Chennai, Siva,
44, calls his entry into the world of fund management as an accident
though a happy one at that. “I can switch off from investments
anytime and be peaceful with myself” he says.
• HOME Business Standard • FUND MANAGER • October 2006 |
