Smart People

SMART EYE

Dileep Madgavkar will soon join the league of extra-ordinary fund men. The chief executive officer of Prudential ICICI (till last week) would join the emerging markets fund management team at Prudential's Hong Kong office.

He is among a few Indian fund professionals who have managed to get an international assignment without switching jobs, especially on the investment side.

That is quite an incredible achievement for someone who holds no fancy management degree, but a desi Chartered Accountancy degree. Madgavkar is obviously proud of his feat.

Madgavkar is known for his sound debt fund management skills. He has had fantastic treasury management experience working with the bond desk at Bank of America and ANZ Grindlays before joining Prudential.

Alas, it is bonds that made his life, in more than one sense! Madgavkar charmed Anu, now his wife, with his 'bond' talk when the two were working with Bank of America.

Madgavkar has never been counted as a star fund manager. Rarely have Prudential's funds topped the performance table. What Madgavkar has, however, done with great degree of consistency is to beat the benchmarks.

And this without digressing from investment principles and internal risk-management guidelines.

"I have always resisted the temptation to dilute risk containment measures or alter the portfolio focus to swing with the moods of the market despite pressures from all quarters," says Madgavkar.

He says it gives him immense satisfaction that he has been able deliver superior returns without tinkering with the sanctity of his products. It is not for nothing that Pru has managed to maintain its lead as the No 1 private sector fund house in the country, even as its competitors struggle to get there even after resorting to acquisitions.

Madgavkar is a sports fan and cricket is his favourite game. His favourite player is Rahul Dravid for he is "complete and dependable," Madgavkar says.

In the fund management game, Madgavkar has adopted the same trick - scores singles to make a dependable score than to hit sixers and get out.

Nilesh Shah, who took over as the chief investment officer of Prudential ICICI Asset Management from Dileep Madgavkar last week, is what Amitabh Bachchan was for Bollywood in his early days - an angry young man.

His anguish is evident when he recalls the primary market debacle of the early nineties and how merchant bankers' mispricing of IPOs impoverished millions of investors or the malpractices like late trading, front running and faulty trade allocations which ail the fund industry world-wide today.

Shah is razor sharp, well stocked with information and has a perfect understanding of markets. Combine this with his unquestionable integrity and genuine concern for investors, one wonders if he is a misfit in his job. He should probably hold a top job in Sebi!

Shah is modesty personified. You discover that when he tells you he topped the country in the CA) exam but does not think it's any great shakes. Shah has had an illustrious career.

Equipped with CA and ICWA (cost accountancy) degrees, he began his career with the merchant banking division of ICICI in 1992. He then moved to JP Morgan's forex department in Singapore and after a brief stint there he was back in I-Sec.

"I-Sec is a hub of the best brains and I felt out of place there," he says (a helping of modesty again). Since 1997, Shah had been with Franklin Templeton managing investments. But all that goes around, comes around. So Shah is back with Prudential ICICI. "It's like coming back home," he quips.

Home is fine, but there are many things he still has to get used to. He points to the Bloomberg terminal at Pru which is strikingly different from the Reuters one he had at Templeton. But there is much more that he would rather not specify at this point. Does his investment philosophy change with organisations? He returns a stern no.

A conservative investment approach - where downside risks gain priority over upside gains - is what has worked for Shah so far and he will still stick to it.

A Mumbaite, Shah spent his grooming years in Kalbadevi, studied in Sydenham and moved to Juhu where he is settled. When he is not at work, he is pre-occupied with domestic chores whether it be helping his wife cook or prepare kids for school.

He is euphoric about his 'five-year plan' - learning driving, swimming and cycling! All this along with maintaining Pru ICICI as a leading private fund house.