Smart People

SMART EYE

Ved Prakash Chaturvedi did what Tata could not. Wondering what? For many years after its inception in 1994, Tata Mutual Fund struggled to grow its corpus to a respectable level despite Tata being a household name.

Finally, it took Ved Prakash Chaturvedi to grow the mutual fund business for Tatas. Since Chaturvedi took over as chief executive officer of Tata Mutual Fund in 2002, the fund's corpus has gone up to Rs 5,000 crore from Rs 800 crore. That is something Chaturvedi is really proud of.

In its zeal to grow the corpus further, last week Tata Mutual launched a new fund called Tata P/E fund. Chaturvedi expects to garner around Rs 400 crore (and 60,000 investors) through the initial public offer.

Chaturvedi has had a long and diverse career path - ranging from credit rating to asset management. He is an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Nagpur and a management graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

The start of his career in 1989 also saw the start of credit ratings in India - he was a part of Crisil. He then moved to the bond desk of Bank Nationale de Paris in 1992.

In 1994, he joined Sun F&C when it started out its mutual fund business and in 1998, stunned people by moving to a public sector mutual fund.

After his two-year stint with SBI Mutual as CIO, Chaturvedi took over as CEO of Cholamandalam Mutual in 2000 and finally joined Tata Asset Management in 2002.

Many years and many mutual funds brought with them a lot of experience that he has harnessed to build a booming corpus for Tata Mutual Fund.

Chaturvedi feels that the fund industry has matured a lot in recent times. What explains this point is the fact that even as the markets experienced sharp volatility there was hardly any redemption pressure.

"Investors have indeed matured and have a long-term perspective for their investment," says Chaturvedi. New products like commodity and real estate funds, he feels, still have to wait long.

He is a tennis freak and has also got his six-year old son hooked on to the game. An outdoor person, Chaturvedi loves driving out of Mumbai and long walks on the Marine Drive.

He likes reading, and books on wealth creation are always preferred. Next week, Chaturvedi is off to Kerala with his family to enjoy the monsoons!

As Chaturvedi completes two years with Tata Mutual Fund, investors are only hoping that he does not look to make his next switch!

At 62, T P Raman, managing director, Sundaram Mutual Fund, is perhaps the oldest mutual fund CEO in the country, but his mannerisms can easily put youngsters to shame.

He can walk more briskly than most people and talk faster than one can absorb. This young-at-heart gentleman is passionate about sports, cars and action movies.

Raman left a cushy job at State Bank of India in 1995, after completing 30 years there to build Sundaram Mutual Fund from scratch. This should be enough evidence to confirm his affinity towards challenges.

Last week Raman was in Mumbai to launch a new fund called Sundaram India Leadership Fund (SILF). Raman expects to garner around Rs 300-350 crore initially for the open-ended fund.

He feels that the mutual fund industry has finally got its act together, especially in terms of in-house discipline. The key issue still is how to bring in the large section of retail investors into the mutual fund fold.

The solution, Raman says, lies in working hand-in-hand with public sector banks which have a huge retail reach. "Information dissemination and creating awareness form an important part of this exercise," he says.

Originally from Hyderabad, Raman completed his masters in commerce before acquiring CAIIB - a banking degree - to kick-start his career at SBI as a probationary officer.

Raman jogs every day and never misses a chance to play cricket. His other interests are driving, movies and classical music. The older Honda City is what takes him around the town and also for spins around Chennai.

Raman is very fond of thriller and action movies and books apart from thematic movies. And when he is not watching movies, he is listening to classical music.

Sundaram Mutual Fund may not be a leader in the domestic mutual fund industry, but that may be of little consequence to unitholders as long as SILF is able to grab a lead position.