AMC Background

Nine Rivers Capital PMS was founded in 2014 by Sandeep Daga (an experienced private equity professional), with an aim of bringing ‘private-equity’ style investing to listed small & mid cap investing in India. AMC Backed by Investment Team with Strong PE Credential Founded in 2014, Nine River's Capital is a niche PMS that aims to invest with a PE style in listed equities. While it is backed by a strong promoter with strong PE credentials, the firm has not yet scaled in-line with its potential.

Investment Philosophy

Nine Rivers Capital PMS’s core belief is that you can only generate superior long-term returns in small & mid caps by applying the same rigor and discipline as in private equity investing. The aim is to exploit the judgmental biases and behavioural weaknesses of market participants, to identify attractive investment opportunities. Nine Rivers looks for the following attributes in possible investee companies – dominance in a niche vertical, growth tailwinds, a robust balance sheet, strong ROEs and a lack of institutional research coverage. Private-equity Approach to Small-cap Investing Nine Rivers Capital has a clearly articulated investment philosophy focused on investing in small & mid-cap companies with a private equity approach. The stock selection methodologies, along with their risk-control frameworks are strongly defined.

ASCEND Framework

Their stock-selection process now follows the ASCEND Framework, a private equity approach applied to public markets, built on six tenets:

• Ahead of Consensus: Hunting for the discovery premium in out-of-favour sectors nearing an earnings inflection, long-duration structural themes the market only prices in episodes, and fundamentally good businesses in temporary distress.
• Size of Opportunity: Assessed in two layers: absolute TAM (is the runway long enough?) and quality of TAM (structurally attractive market vs. a commodity bloodbath in disguise), tested by whether the market could absorb the company tripling its revenue without triggering a price war.
• Competitive Advantage in the Making: Investing one step earlier, when the moat is visibly under construction but not yet fully built, tracking signals like emerging pricing power, accelerating market share gains, rising customer stickiness, widening cost advantages, network effects, and brand deepening.
• Execution & Management Quality: Assessed on Capability (capital allocation, capital distribution, working capital management, incentive alignment) and Character (a documented history of word matching deed, ecosystem scuttlebutt, and direct interactions with the second and third line) — this tenet is non-negotiable.
• Numbers That Compound: Qualitative conviction must withstand quantitative filters: revenue growth ≥15%, earnings growth ≥20%, ROCE ≥20% (or a credible path to it), cash conversion of 50–70%+, and low-to-no debt. Direction matters more than speed.
• Discipline of Price and Process: Valuation discipline (intrinsic value as a range, not a point estimate; buying below the lower band; accepting opportunity cost over capital cost) combined with process discipline: a private-equity mindset, written guardrails on entry and exit, active monitoring against all six tenets, and repeatability of process.

Investment Process

• Ideation and Discovery: Spotting value-creation drivers through macro-tailwinds (policy, regulatory, consumer-behaviour, and technology among others)
• Fundamental Evaluation: Strong 15% earnings growth with free cash flows, low leverage, good governance and sustainable 15%+ ROCEs
• Conservative Entry Point: Buy growth at reasonable valuation. Average entry PE below 20x. 
• Risk Management: Constant monitoring (of positions, performance, governance and macro), pro-active exits (based on valuation guardrails, thesis deviation, macro events, and superior alternatives), and selective forensic diligence where indicated.

Suitable For Investor's seeking to invest with a Private Equity approach in listed equities.