AMC Background

East Lane Capital is a Mumbai-based PMS manager founded in May 2020 by Sandeep Kothari, a Chartered Accountant with 25 years of institutional equity experience. Kothari spent 18 years at Fidelity Investments (2002-2020), where he managed domestic Indian mutual funds including the flagship Fidelity Equity Fund and Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund from 2005, and served as portfolio advisor to the $2 billion Fidelity India Fund from 2012 until his exit in February 2020. Prior to Fidelity, he worked as a pharmaceutical and consumer analyst on the sell-side from 1993.

Investment Philosophy

The firm targets two opportunity sets: unrecognized growth at the right price and quality cyclical businesses at the right value. Stock selection is grounded in the belief that price ultimately reflects fundamental business value over time, requiring both deep understanding of how a business generates profits and a context-specific valuation framework tailored to the business characteristics. The investment process involves reading annual reports, building financial models, and conducting management meetings supplemented by competitor and industry expert consultations. The firm leverages an industry network developed over Kothari's career, providing access to senior management across sectors and a network of global analysts for idea generation and management evaluation. Portfolio construction is opportunistic rather than thematic—the firm does not constrain itself by market capitalization bands or sector mandates, instead investing in each company on its individual merit. The stated goal is to construct a focused portfolio of companies with strong management teams to generate superior absolute returns over the long term, with emphasis on long-term thinking to navigate market noise and realize intrinsic value.