Jinesh Gopani quits Axis MF, to start own asset management venture

Devalkar has been with the fund house for over seven years and has been managing its bluechip, mid-cap, small-cap and flexi-cap funds

Jinesh Gopani has quit Axis Mutual Fund (MF) as its Head of Equities after a 14-year long stint with the fund house. Gopani will be starting his own venture in the asset management space, he told Business Standard.

 Axis MF has promoted fund manager Shreyas Devalkar to fill up the vacated position.

Gopani headed the equity investment team at the fund house for over seven years and was co-managing four active schemes — Focused 25, Long Term Equity, Growth Opportunities and ESG Equity.

In the past, several mutual fund managers have started their own investment firms, mostly getting into portfolio management services and alternative investment funds (AIF). A year ago, Prashant Jain quit HDFC AMC to launch his own AIF. Sunil Singhania, Madhusudan Kela and Kenneth Andrade are few other big names to have left the MF industry. Andrade is returning to the MF fold with his own venture. His PMS Old Bridge Capital has received in-principle approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to start MF business.

Gopani will be with Axis MF for the next two months to ensure a smooth transition, said an Axis MF official.

Devalkar has been with Axis MF for over seven years and has been managing its bluechip, midcap, smallcap and flexicap funds. Prior to joining Axis, Devalkar was a fund manager at BNP Paribas AMC.

The fund house also announced the appointment of Shatadru Chakraborty as the Chief Risk Officer.