Janus Capital, a US-based fund, has changed its portfolio manager for two funds investing in India - Janus Aspen Overseas Portfolio and Janus Overseas Portfolio. Sectoral people say the new portfolio manager, George Maris, who took over on January 1, seems to be churning the portfolio. "There have been several block deals of companies such as Reliance Industries (RIL), DLF, Adani Ports, Axis Bank and others from Janus," say industry players. According to Janus' fact sheet, the two funds, which have over $3 billion in assets, hold RIL as their top holding, while DLF is in top 10. Market players are awaiting the updated fact sheet to see how Maris views Indian companies.
Joydeep Ghosh
Three foreign MFs set deadlines for performance
A few foreign fund houses, which are partnering with public sector banks (PSBs), are beginning to show their displeasure with the business performance. Sectoral insiders say at least three such fund houses have had meetings with their teams recently and expressed this point of view. They have also given strict deadlines, between six months and a year, to their existing teams to deliver or perish. Their main complaint: While they had partnered with PSBs to take advantage of their branch networks, employees of banks are unwilling to sell funds aggressively.
Joydeep Ghosh
Fund managers might contain flows into small-cap schemes
While the headline indices have come off sharply from their peaks, mid-cap and small-cap indices have stayed resilient, and price-to-earnings' multiples of smaller firms have seen a rise. Fund managers fear if markets remain weak, selling pressure might shift to smaller stocks. Fund managers are now considering 'gating' investor inflows into small- and mid-cap schemes. "We are planning to advice investors to consider balanced funds or blue-chip funds and avoid mid- or small-cap funds," said a fund manager, who has turned wary of this space.
Chandan Kishore Kant
