Abakkus All Cap
Abakkus PMS | Equity | | PMSIME's View on Abakkus All Cap
Strategy
Concentrated Flexi-Cap Approach
Investment Fund
While the AMC & Strategy are relatively new esp compared to other larger fund houses in India, the strong investment pedigree of Sunil Singhania combined with a clearly defined investment strategy & a strong initial track record, make Abakkus All Cap Portfolio a good option for someone seeking a high-quality investment team for long-term wealth creation.
Fund's Strategy View
The strategy is a flexi-cap approach, constructing a diversified portfolio spanning market caps with a 3-5 year holding period. Large-cap allocations are guided by top-down sectoral perspectives, while overall company selections adhere to the meticulous 'MEETS' framework, ensuring a dynamic and well-informed investment strategy. Their investment philosophy focuses on strong fundamentals through the 'MEETS' framework with a clearly defined philosophy driven by a rigorous investment process. The strategy includes quantified benchmarks to gauge quality, growth & valuations, along with clearly defined benchmarks around concentration, stock and sector exposures.
Fund Performance
We refrain from evaluating the fund since it is yet to mature (less than 5 years).
IME's View on Abakkus PMS
View on AMC
In a relatively short-time, Abakkus has scaled into one of the largest PMS-AIF firms in India on the back of the strong pedigree of its founder - Sunil Singhania - an industry veteran who was the former CIO of Nippon MF. The higher 5-star fund rating for a relatively newer fund, is driven by the very high pedigree of it's founder (Sunil Singhania), a strong investment team and a very clearly defined investment philosophy (driven by the MEETS framework) & research processes.
AMC's Pedigree
A combination of scale, a very pedigreed investment team, a very well defined investment philosophy and strong performance in its initial years, makes Abakkus a highly pedigreed AMC with strong long-term potential in the Indian Alternatives space.
AMC Team
Abakkus's core investment team, led by Sunil Singhania and Aman Chowhan of Reliance AMC, has over 5 decades of experience. The senior investments team, is well supported by a large research team comprising a mix of senior & junior research analysts.
Investment Philosophy
Abakkus follows a MEETS framework (Management, Earnings, Events, Timing, Structural) for investment evaluations, with quantified benchmarks for quality, growth, and valuations. This MEETS framework, is complemented by a 5D Investment Process (the defines the stock selection process starting from a larger universe to the coverage list & final portfolio companies), a 4C framework of what they avoid doing (chasing momentum, churn, copying & credit risks) and a strong risk-management framework. The investment philosophies & frameworks are amongst the most tightly defined in the industry.
Investment Strategy
Abakkus All Cap strategy is a benchmark agnostic multi-cap fund with an aim to generate alpha and wealth creation with a 3-5 years investment holding period. The strategy allocated to large-cap companies based on a top-down sector view with a focus on stability and aims to generate alpha through broader market companies (mid and small-cap) with sustainable business and high ROEsLARGE-CAP
- Approach: Focus on aspiring leadings vs paying a premium for leaders/market favourites
MID-CAP
- Approach: Invest in companies which are amongst top players in the respective industries and have the potential to become large-cap companies
- Avoid: stories and broken balance sheets
SMALL-CAP
- Approach: only when potential payoff is asymmetric
Investment Philosophy
The philosophy is driven by a bottom-up approach with a very strong focus on balance sheets and earnings. Each investment opportunity is based on individual merit rather than the theme or style.Tenets of Investment Philosophy
- Focus on Alpha Generators: Abakkus focuses on three aspects to generate alpha. Identify 'growth companies', where profitability is higher than the market average, value defined as fundamentally under-priced with reasonable growth expectations, and mid-cap with scalable businesses that have the potential to become large-cap in nature.
- Contrarian in nature: prefers to be the first, early and/or only investors in the identified companies.
- Buy-and-hold: Invest in businesses as a partner than a stock-picker
- Risk-reward: focus on the price and value derived by looking at 'what is in the price?'
Abakkus's MEETS Framework
- Management (M): Evaluation based on capital allocation track record and fairness to minority shareholders
- Earnings (E): Quality of earnings, cyclical or structural in nature and ability to double profits in 4 years or less or where EV/EBITDA can half in 4 years
- Events/Trends (E): Evaluation of events on the horizon or disruptive trends/new themes
- Timing (T): driven by the principle of 'good company is not necessarily a good investment if the price is not right'. Focus on 'what is the price discounting' and time horizon of the investment.
- Structural (S): Size of the opportunity, competitive moat and consistent growth in profits.
Avoid the Four C's
- Chase Momentum: let fundamentals drive our investment decision rather than price movements
- Churn unnecessarily: No trading. No needless churning of the portfolio
- Copy and Mimic: will not be influenced by 'herd mentality'.
- Credit Risk - Fractured Balance Sheet: very difficult to rebuild a broken balance sheet and these stocks eventually turn into value traps and hence, are best avoided
Exit Strategy
- Fundamentals don't pan out as expected due to sector deterioration, company-specific issues, and governance issues.
- Stocks may do much better than expected.
- Position becomes insignificant and can't /don't want to add.
- New investment ideas are better than existing holdings in terms of risk-reward.
Investment Process
Abakkus All Cap fund follows a '5D Process'- Discover: a universe of 6000 companies, ~1500 companies are investable | discovery is driven by annual report, analysts, inhouse screeners, ecosystem, team experience, and news flow
- Delve: Deep dive into ~350 companies through 'MEETS' framework | Deep dive and analyse companies across management quality, earnings, events, timing and structural trends
- Develop: Macro and micro analysis on ~100 companies | further research driven by management meetings, potential triggers, peer comparison, financial models and competitive advantage
- Detail: Idea generation on ~75 stocks | driven by portfolio construction on liquidity, sector exposure, risk management and portfolio beta aspects
- Deliver: Portfolio construction and risk monitoring of ~30 stocks | monitoring through quarterly reviews, news flow and sell discipline
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abakkus All Cap | -4.4 | 19.9 | 24.8 | |
| S&P BSE 500 | -6.6 | 14.7 | 20.3 | |
| Alpha over Broad Mkt BM | 2.2 | 5.2 | 4.5 |
Performance as of: 30-Sep-25 | Inception Date: 29-Oct-20 | Performance are post-fees, pre-taxes. Global funds denominated in USD or fund currency.
Investment team
Sunil Singhania | 5-star rated FM
Founder | 31 yrs Experience | 8 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: CIO (Reliance Capital), Director - Research and Institutional Sales (Advani Share Brokers)
Sunil Singhania comes with ~3 decades of rich experience. He was a CIO at Reliance Capital for over 20 years before starting Abakkus. Prior to Abakkus, in his role as Global Head ‚ Equities at Reliance Capital Ltd., he oversaw equity assets and provided strategic inputs across Reliance Capital Group of companies including asset management, insurance, AIF, and offshore assets. And as CIO ‚ Equities, Singhania led Reliance Mutual Fund equity schemes.Furthermore, he led Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd.'s international efforts and was instrumental in launching India funds in Japan, South Korea, and the UK, besides managing mandates from institutional investors based in the US, Singapore, and other countries. He is a CA rank holder and a CFA charter holder and graduated in commerce from Mumbai University.
Aman Chowhan | 4-star rated FM
Fund Manager | 25 yrs Experience | 7 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Portfolio Manager (Reliance Capital), Equity Analyst (Reliance MF, TAIB Securities, Tata TD Waterhouse Securities)
Aman Chowhan comes with 2 decades of experience in the equity markets. Prior to joining Abakkus, he was Portfolio Manager for all local and offshore schemes for the PMS division of Reliance Asset Management. Having worked at the Singapore office of Reliance, Aman brings along a regional and global perspective in investing and has a strong track record across ‚ benchmark, absolute long, and long-short strategies. Before joining Reliance in 2005 he was associated as a research analyst with TAIB securities, Tata TD Waterhouse, and other brokerage firms. Aman holds an MBA degree from Mumbai University.
