The Chennai-based Sundaram Mutual Fund manages Rs 1,150 crore in net assets spread over nearly 10 funds. This includes a pure growth fund, a bond fund, a balanced fund and four speciality funds.
Sundaram Mutual launched these speciality funds under the Sundaram "Select" brand last year. Though these have rarely featured in the category topper's list, they have managed to deliver steady returns over a longer time period, thanks to their conservative investment approach.
T P Raman, managing director, Sundaram Mutual Fund, spoke about the outlook on the market, industry and the performance of his funds.
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What is your outlook on the markets? What factors do you think will be instrumental in reviving it ?
Going forward, revival of the markets is based on certain factors. The markets will look for sentiment-driven activity, so the government's directives must be clear. Unless there is a strong commitment from the government to infrastructure spending and the privatisation process, market sentiment will remain weak.
For instance, investments in power and roads have strong backward linkages and this will help spur cyclical stocks. FIIs, who have been large investors, will stay away if the uncertainty on economic reforms continues. Companies, on their part, have cleaned up their balancesheets and have got their act together.
But the problem is that no strategic direction is emerging. So they are rolling back investment plans. Though it may be partly because of existing excess capacity due to lower-than-expected demand growth, it's more importantly because they are unsure when their investments will pay-off. That's why they are making huge investments in mutual funds.
Ideally companies should not be investing in funds, but in their own businesses...
That's an interesting point. You mentioned that companies ideally should not be investing in funds given the fact that the bulk of investments in mutual funds are made by them.
But corporate money is high-momentum money. Companies will pull out money from funds once the economy picks up. So if you are a mutual fund, you can base your business on these investments.
For instance, banks invested large amounts in short-term funds for want of better investment opportunities. But they pulled out all the money when markets turned volatile.
However, I am not sure if this will be the case with all corporate investments. Companies will continue to use money market funds to park their surplus. There are some companies, particularly in the pharmaceuticals sector, with no major capex plans but which are cash rich and invest with a longer-term perspective. They will continue to invest in debt funds.
However, the large-scale investments in debt funds seen in the past year may not be sustainable. That's why we plan to introduce an institutional plan in our bond fund to cater exclusively to corporate needs. This way, fluctuations in returns due to large-scale inflows or redemptions do not affect retail investors.
What is your investment strategy? Are you looking to hike your cash exposure?
On the equity side, we are only placing our bets on the cyclical sector. We are not too bullish on the FMCG and pharmaceutical sectors. We have been coming away from the IT sector and barely hold a few stocks. We are looking at some banks where the valuations are low and the results are likely to be good.
So, there are some gains to be made here. We are also positive on power generation stocks. On the debt side, we are looking at the yield curve closely. We are trying to position ourselves on the right side of the curve. We are also investing in highly liquid securities, so that we are able to exit our positions quickly.
We are looking to increase our cash exposure so that we are able to capitalise on any good investment opportunity that emerges. We will make sure that this increase in cash will not affect our overall yields. We are looking to roll back our maturity profile.
What is your reaction to the Credit Policy? Your opinion was that a rate cut was quite unnecessary at this moment...
The rate cut was more of a sentiment-driven move. The current economic scenario doesn't actually warrant a rate cut. Though there is some credit pick-up, banks are still flush with funds.
Further there are no huge capex plans on the corporate side to warrant a huge credit off-take. So there's not much a rate cut can do in the current scenario. In fact, this was clearly seen in the market reaction soon after the Credit Policy when it turned bearish on concerns over inflation.
Though markets recovered quickly, we expect them to remain range-bound in the near future. We are looking to increase our exposure to corporate bonds, as they are less volatile. The next few weeks will be crucial for the markets as a clearer picture of oil prices and inflation will emerge.
With interest rates likely to stabilise at these levels, and given the recent volatility in debt funds, is it the end of the road for debt funds?
Yes, the months of January and February have been volatile, but the market has since then stabilised. Debt funds are not only tax-efficient but also offer instant liquidity. No other comparable investment option offers the same.
So, as long debt funds continue to generate returns over and above market returns, they will continue to be the best among fixed income options. On an average, debt funds should be able to generate returns in the range of 7.5 -8.00 per cent this year.
Your gilt fund hasn't really taken off and has underperformed its category. How do you plan to improve its performance?
Yes, the fund hasn't done too well. We are repositioning our gilt fund now. If you see, the profile of the fund is tilted to the shorter end of the maturity spectrum. So we plan to position this as short-term gilt fund.
We plan to merge the three long-term plans that we currently offer: the 3-year, 5-year and 10-year into a single fund and position that as a long-term gilt fund. We are talking to hospitals, educational and religious institutions because gilt funds are ideal investment avenues for them as there is no credit risk involved.
Many funds have been launched based on sectors or investment themes that catch the investor's fancy. You also launched a mid-cap fund last year after the mid-cap rally. While these funds have done well for some time, they have disappointed over the long term. Your comments?
The launch of a fund is driven by the need of the hour. But I would agree that, launching a fund based on a short-term phenomenon, such as re-rating of a sector, is not right. The mid-cap fund we launched is more generic in nature and not sector-specific.
The idea behind launching it was to catch future blue-chip companies early. In this fund, we try to spot tomorrow's Hero Honda or Dr Reddy's and invest in them early. Investments are made with a more long-term objective with a 2-3 year horizon. We are against the idea of sector funds. You can't place your bets on a single sector.
Mutual funds should offer a decent range of products that covers various risk appetites and time horizons. The more products a fund offers, the more complications that arise.
Simplicity of products is critical, especially on the equity side. Once the comfort level with mutual funds as an investment avenue grows, then you can introduce more variety in your product offerings.