Unifi PMS

PMS Background

Founded by Sarath Reddy in 2001, Unifi has seen tremendous growth to enter the top 5 PMS providers in the market. What makes this accomplishment so credible, is that this is a PMS that has been built from the ground up (without the backing of a large broker, AMC or Star Fund Manager). Unifi’s success has been built on the back of strong client engagement and the launch of differentiated strategies based on specific market opportunities (typically close-ended limited-time launches) as compared to the more common open-ended evergreen strategies of other PMS providers. Unifi provides unique proposition to their clients Unifi has been very successful in consistently identifying thematic-based opportunities. The team at Unifi, led by Sarath Reddy, have built the AMC to become a leading fund house despite the lack of backing of any large institution, solely based on their differentiated proposition and value-addition to the clients.

Investment Philosophy

Unifi is essentially a value investor in growth businesses. Value is placed first, but with a clear recognition that business growth is the critical catalyst required for a stock to re-rate. These niche opportunities are often limited in terms of time and the amount of capital that can be deployed, which is why most Unifi strategies are launched for only a limited time and are systematically closed once the opportunity has played out. The current niche themes that the fund follows are:

1. Spin-off: Corporate action leading to mispricing in a special situation
2. Deep Value Discount (DVD): Deep discount to intrinsic value due to inadequate understanding of the business, relatively low market cap, and liquidity, or lack of correlation to benchmark indices. DVD invests in such businesses and exploits market inefficiencies
3. Hold co: Identifies strong underlying businesses and looks for massive valuation discounts that are likely to recover as promoters feel the heat of change in the regulatory landscape
4. APJ20: Sectors that become globally competitive and are privy to an expanding market opportunity. APJ20 theme selects firms that have evolved and are in a ripe position to benefit from such growth prospects.
5. Green: Focus on companies that provide products and services that help in reducing the carbon footprint in the environment and/or result in more efficient use of natural resources. Sectors identified are – emission control, energy efficiency, water management, and waste management.
6. Insider Shadow: Invests in companies in which founders have acquired a meaningful quantity of additional shares at market prices.
7. BCAD: Focus is on established companies in the specific sector that are lading the migration of market share from unorganized to organized players. Powerful trends are driving the shift in the balance of competitive advantage in favour of organized businesses. 

Thematic-based Strategies Unifi follows a thematic investment style, with each strategy designed around specific niche opportunities. They pan across special situations, deep value, business consolidation due to disruption, green opportunity, insider shadow among others. These theme-based strategies could provide good risk-adjusted returns and be a good addition to the portfolio helping in diversification since they are typically ignored parts of the markets. Suitable For Investor's seeking to invest in specific investment themes.