PMS Rating
The PMS/AIF AMC Rating is derived on the basis of our analysis on 5 key qualitative parameters that we use to analyse the quality of a PMS/AIF Provider. These include an assessment of the size of the AMC, the pedigree of the AMC, the pedigree of the team, the value of the investment philosophy & the level of differentiation. These insights of our central research team are documented in the IME RMS, and can be accessed during a consultation call with an IME PMS specialist.
PMS Background
Discretionary AUM (8336cr) | Promoter Category ()
AMC Background
Marcellus was founded in 2018 by bringing together the highly successful team (Saurabh Mukerjea, Pramod Guppi, Rakshit Ranjan) that were instrumental drivers of the growth of Ambits Investment Management business. At Ambit, the investment team of Saurabh & Rakshit delivered multiple years of strong outperformance driven by a strategy of investing in high-quality franchises with the highest levels of corporate governance. Backed by its strong founding team pedigree, Marcellus has in a very short period of time-scaled to become one of the largest (top-10 PMS houses) and most respected PMS providers in India.
Investment Philosophy
Marcellus follows a very clearly defined investment philosophy that essentially seeks to make long-term investments in high-quality business franchises. Their investment approach has 3 core pillars:
- Clean Accounts: A combination of forensic accounting & capital allocation assessments help determine how clean a company’s books are. This helps narrow the investible universe (Saurabh has been one of the foremost experts in the use of forensic accounting to identify potential issues in company accounts)
- Capital Allocation: Invest only in companies with a strong track record of efficient capital allocation
- Competitive Advantage: Seek to only invest in companies that have very strong competitive moats Marcellus (and the same team prior at Ambit) is known for a rigorous following of these quality filters and to invest in only the highest quality companies (often willing to pay very high premiums to invest in top quality franchises).
Inv Team
Investment Team
Rakshit Ranjan | 5-star rated FM
Fund Manager | 20 yrs Experience | 6 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Ambit Capital (FM), Lloyds Banking (Director Research), Noble & Co (Analyst)
Rakshit has a strong investment management track record, having launched Ambit’s Coffee-Can PMS in Mar-17, which he ran till Dec-18. The Coffee-Can PMS was one of the best-performing PMS schemes in 2018. Prior to setting up the Coffee-Can PMS, Rakshit was the lead consumer analyst at Ambit. His earlier experience was in UK equities at the Lloyds & Noble groups.
Saurabh Mukherjea | 5-star rated FM
Founder & CIO | 27 yrs Experience | 6 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Ambit Capital (CEO), Noble (Head of India Equities), Accenture (Consultant), London Economics (Consultant)
Saurabh comes with a very strong investments background, having helped build Ambit’s broking, wealth & investment management businesses as CEO. He was also responsible for building Execution Nobles India broking business (which was sold to Ambit) and having set up and sold Clear Capital (a UK based small cap research fund). Saurabh is a strong believer in investing in the long-term in very high quality clean businesses and has written a number of books including Gurus of Chaos, The Unusual Billionaires and Coffee Can Investing.
Ashvin Shetty | 4-star rated FM
Portfolio Manager | 21 yrs Experience | 6 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Analyst (Ambit), Analyst (Execution Noble), Statutory Auditor (KPMG)
Ashvin Shetty has more than a decade of experience in equity research. Previously, at Ambit, he led the coverage on automobile sector from 2010 to 2017. Ashvin was recognised multiple times for his stock picking abilities. He was ranked in Starmine Analyst Awards 2013 and 2016 as a lead auto analyst. He later moved onto become a senior analyst for Ambit’s Mid and Small cap PMS funds till November 2018. Prior to joining Ambit, he worked with Execution Noble as an analyst covering consumer and media space. He has also worked with KPMG’s and Deloitte’s statutory audit departments from 2004 to 2007 gaining extensive experience across Indian accounting standards and financial statement analysis. Ashvin is a BCom graduate from Narsee Monjee College (Mumbai). He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAI India) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA Institute, USA).
Tej Shah | 3-star rated FM
Fund Manager | 10 yrs Experience | 6 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Investment Analyst (MF Advisors LLP), Investment Banking Analyst (Ambit Holding)
Tej Shah is a Portfolio Manager at Marcellus. Prior to joining Marcellus, Tej worked at Mayfield, a Silicon Valley headquartered venture capital fund that manages $3Bn globally and $220Mn in India. Tej spent 2 years as a part of Mayfield India’s investment team covering multiple sectors and being at the centre of India’s evolving venture ecosystem. Prior to Mayfield, he was a part of the equity and capital markets team of Ambit Capital where he was involved in the end to end execution of IPOs, QIPs and buybacks. Tej is a Chartered Accountant and has cleared all levels of the CFA exam. He holds a B. Com degree from Ahmedabad University.
Arindam Mandal | 3-star rated FM
Fund Manager | 17 yrs Experience | 2 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Senior Member, Equity Research (Principal Global Investors), Equity Analyst (Investors Mosaic), Equity Investments Research Associate (Principal Global investors), Lead Member of Technical Staff (Oracle)
Arindam Mandal has nearly a decade of experience in the United States equities, working for Principal Global Investors. He began his career in the capital markets as a quant analyst and transitioned to fundamental research, serving as sector analyst for US Industrials and Utilities. Arindam holds a Bachelors of Technology degree from NIT Warangal and received his honors in Finance for his MBA from Duke University.
PMS/AIF Schemes
PMS & Listed Equity AIF Schemes
| Scheme | Category | Style | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | Since Inc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcellus Kings of Capital | BFSI | Sectoral | 26.5 | 5.8 | 13.9 | |
| Marcellus Rising Giants | Mid & Smallcap | High-quality | 21.2 | 1 | ||
| Marcellus Little Champs | Mid & Smallcap | High-quality | 9 | -0.6 | 15.2 | 16.5 |
| Marcellus Consistent Compounders | Large Cap | High-quality | 25.7 | 7.4 | 16.2 | 17.7 |
Returns as of 30-Sep-24.
Free 30-Day Trial of the IME RMS
Details shared above, are only a short-snapshot of the more detailed analysis that resides in IME’s Proprietary RMS (Research Management Solution).
The IME RMS is the first tool ever, to give investors direct access to the insights of the central research team. Investors gain direct access to our ratings, rating rationales & analysis across thousands of funds (MFs, PMSs, AIFs, Global funds), asset classes, categories & more.
Note: PMS AMC & Scheme Reviews and Ratings are based on IME Capital’s Proprietary Review and Rating Methodology (read more here: AMC Rating & Scheme Ratings). These reflect the unbiased views of our central research team, based on our assessment of the investment value of these PMS/AIF strategies for our investors. We follow a highly stringent rating-criteria, where approximately 50% of PMS AMC’s & strategies would be rated 2-star or below (this is not meant to indicate that these funds are not investment-worthy, but that they do not currently fulfill the requirements we focus on for recommending funds to our investors — based on our internal views on the merit of the AMC/strategy relative to peers). Reviews & Ratings are primarily based on research of publicly available information (SEBI disclosures, PMS websites, PMS-aggregation platforms, webinar recording, media interviews etc.) and no explicit consent is required from AMCs for the same. While we endeavour to do further due-diligence via direct interactions with the investment teams of AMCs, this is typically restricted to AMC’s that meet our foundational fund selection criteria (reviews on lower-rated AMCs are often based solely on publicly available information). The views reflected in our Reviews & Ratings, are our independent views and may not be shared by the AMC’s and the investment teams. Please read detailed disclaimer for more.