Ambit Good & Clean MidCap
Ambit PMS | Equity | | PMSIME's View on Ambit Good & Clean MidCap
Strategy
Concentrated Mid-Cap Strategy
Investment Fund
Would recommend that investors seeking to invest in this strategy invest instead with the strategy's original team who now runs a similar strategy at Marcellus (which carries lower churn risk and a team that prudently follows the philosophy).
Fund's Strategy View
The strategy focuses on a concentrated portfolio of 15-20 companies, showing a preference for mid-cap firms. Companies undergo a rigorous forensic check to ensure selection of fundamentally sound and ethically strong "Good & Clean" companies. The genuineness of reported accounts is a common problem while evaluating Indian businesses (especially those in the small & mid-cap spaces). Ambit PMS's Good & Clean strategy aims to address this issue by investing only in companies that meet the highest quality of accounting & business quality (based on their proprietary forensic accounting & greatness framework).
Fund Performance
The fund has underperformed peers & is amongst the worst performing schemes in this category in the last 5 year trailing returns. In terms of longer-term annual performance, performance consistency has been mixed, with the fund having outperformed & underperformed the bechmark roughly in half the years.
IME's View on Ambit PMS
View on AMC
Ambit PMS is in a sustained phase of evolving its core investment team, following the departure of key members to establish Marcellus in 2018. While Ambit's founding leadership remains stable, significant additions and changes within the investment management functions, particularly at the portfolio manager level, have occurred primarily since 2020-2021. For instance, the Head of PMS & Portfolio Manager joined in around 2021, and the fund manager for their flagship Coffee Can Portfolio was appointed as recently as late 2023. This indicates that a substantial part of the current core investment team is relatively new in their specific roles at Ambit post-2020. The risk of further talent migration remains a key concern, potentially impacting strategy consistency and long-term performance stability during this rebuilding phase.
AMC's Pedigree
Ambit PMS, part of the Ambit Group known for its strengths in investment banking and equity research, focuses on investing in high-quality businesses with strong accounting and corporate governance standards.
AMC Team
Ambit PMS rebuilt its core investment team after the 2018 Marcellus exodus; this largely non-founding team has consolidated primarily since 2020. Consequently, Ambit's pre-2018 track record is not applicable to the current team, and the relative newness of this core unit implies that churn risk remains a key concern for investors.
Investment Philosophy
Ambit's investment philosophy focuses on acquiring high-quality businesses with strong management and clean accounting, which is consistently applied across all strategies.
Investment Strategy
Ambit PMS’s Good & Clean portfolio focuses on investing in mid-cap companies with market-dominating franchises, with the objective of sustainable long-term wealth creation. Stock selection is driven by a strong emphasis on financial quality, governance, and disciplined capital allocation.
- Clean and transparent accounting practices
- Efficient and shareholder-friendly capital allocation
- Strong corporate governance standards
Investment Process
Companies are filtered using a combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria:
- Qualitative factors: Incremental year-on-year capex, sales growth, PBIT margins, efficiency of capital employed, leverage (D/E), equity dilution, and operating cash flows.
- Quantitative factors: Investment universe drawn from BSE 500 companies, with a median portfolio market capitalisation of approximately ₹38,010 crore. Selection is supported by bottom-up research, quality of accounts, efficient capital allocation, and a concentrated portfolio of 15–20 companies, resulting in low churn of 15–20%.
PMS Background
Ambit PMS is part of the Ambit Group, a highly respected financial services franchise with strong capabilities across investment banking, investment management, and equities research. The PMS platform has gained prominence on the back of strong performance driven by a focus on investing in high-quality businesses with clean accounting standards and robust corporate governance. While Ambit PMS benefits from the broader group’s pedigree and research culture, it has also seen senior investment professionals exit in 2018 to form Marcellus and with some team members subsequently joining Avendus.
PMS Investment Philosophy
Ambit follows a clearly defined investment philosophy centred on long-term ownership of high-quality business franchises. The approach is anchored in rigorous quality filters and is willing to pay premium valuations for businesses that meet strict standards on accounting quality, capital allocation, and competitive positioning.
- Clean Accounts: Extensive use of forensic accounting and capital allocation analysis to assess the integrity of financial statements and narrow the investible universe.
- Capital Allocation: Focus on companies with a demonstrated track record of efficient and shareholder-friendly capital allocation.
- Competitive Advantage: Invests only in businesses with strong and sustainable competitive moats, often paying premium valuations for top-quality franchises.
Investment Approach
- Development of a proprietary, research-backed framework
- Disciplined and process-driven investment execution
- Focus on high-quality businesses
- Long-term investing with low portfolio churn
Suitable For
Investors seeking exposure to the highest-quality companies, irrespective of near-term valuations, with the objective of long-term compounding from superior business franchises. The strategy may underperform during strong, momentum-driven bull markets.
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambit Good & Clean MidCap | -5 | 14.6 | 15.3 | 12.6 |
| S&P BSE 500 | 4.9 | 14.6 | 17.2 | 13.3 |
| Alpha over Broad Mkt BM | -9.9 | 0 | -1.9 | -0.7 |
| Nifty Midcap 150 | 7.5 | 23 | 24.6 | |
| Alpha over Category BM | -12.5 | -8.4 | -9.3 |
Performance as of: 30-Nov-25 | Inception Date: 12-Mar-15 | Performance are post-fees, pre-taxes. Global funds denominated in USD or fund currency.
Investment team
Siddharth Bothra | 3-star rated FM
FM | 21 yrs Experience | 2 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Motilal Oswal MF (FM), Aclehmy (Analyst)
Siddharth has more than two decades of experience in equities and asset management. His expertise spans large-cap, midcap, flexicap and hybrid funds. Prior to Ambit, He was in Motilal Oswal for 18 years and was the FM for their Focused 25 and Hybrid Fund.
Trilok Agarwal | 2-star rated FM
FM | 18 yrs Experience | 3 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Birla Life Insurance (FM), Dymon Asia Consultant (Investment Consultent)
Trilok has over 16 years of experience in Investment Management. Prior to Ambit, he as a key Investment member at Aditya Birla Sun Life managing funds over 500mn$, He was also associated with Dymon Asia Capital briefly.
Bhargav Buddhadev | 3-star rated FM
FM | 19 yrs Experience | 2 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Kotak MF (FM)
Bhargav has over 18 years of experience in equity research. Prior to joining Ambit, he worked with Kotak Mutual Fund and also worked with Ambit Institutional Equities.
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