ASK Domestic Resurgence
ASK PMS | Equity | | PMSIME's View on ASK Domestic Resurgence
Strategy
Domestic Economy Focused Strategy
Investment Fund
For investors looking to bet on India, ASK DRP offers a concentrated strategy with one of the most established teams in the industry. While their is a fair degree of overlap with other ASK Strategies, the core differentitator is that 80% of company revenues must come from India. We prefer strategies like IEP & Growth, primarily due to their longer-term track records, and also the flexibility of these strategies to participcate in export-oriented themes like IT, Pharma where value can be created.
Fund's Strategy View
It is a concentrated strategy of carefully identified companies across a range of market capitalization that are likely to benefit from acceleration in the domestic economy. It emphasizes companies with less than 20% export contribution. With ASK's strong focus on quality of businesses & the growth potential, this is a decent strategy for those seeking strategies with exposure primarily to the Indian economy.
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 ASK PMS
View on AMC
ASK is the market leader with a strong investment policy and in-house team. Blackstone acquired a majority stake in their asset management business. Their rating has been downgraded to 4-star due to recent underperformance, but an upgrade to 5-star is possible as performance improves.
AMC's Pedigree
ASK is a leading PMS provider known for delivering sustainable long-term returns with minimal risk. Post Blackstone acquiring a majority stake in ASK in 2022, ASK is now a blackstone company.
AMC Team
Led by Bharat Shah, ASK has a strong and stable investment team which focuses on developing fund managers from their research team aligned with ASK's investment philosophy. While ASK recently lost their long-term CIO Prateek Agarwal to Motilal in Oct-22, they have been able to fill this vacancy with George Joseph joining as the CIO while Sumit Jain (the interim CIO when Prateek left) continuing to play the role of a deputy CIO.
Investment Philosophy
Traditionally ASK followed a GARP investment philosophy (focusing on buying high-qualty businesses, with consistent earnings growth available at the right price). Under George Joseph, this philosophy has been tightened into what they call their FOCUS Philosophy (F - Fundamentals, O - Opportunity Size & Scale, C - Cycles & Capital Allocation, U - Unmatched Moats, S - Safety). The aim is to follow a fundamental-investment philosophy (F - Fundamentals) focused on high-quality companies (U - Unmatched moats) with attractive growth potential (O - Opportunity size) and available at the right valuations (S - Safety), while being aware of underlying business & market cycles (C - Cycles & Capital Allocation).
Investment Stratgey
ASK Domestic Resurgence Portfolio (DRP) is a high-conviction, multi-cap investment strategy designed to capitalize on India’s domestic growth opportunities. The portfolio focuses on businesses benefiting from economic acceleration, increasing per capita income, urbanization, and tax reforms.
Strongly followed GARP Philosophy ASK Growth follows a GARP (Growth at the Right Price) investment philosophy, with a strong focus on the quality of the business & management. While this strategy is largely generic, what differentiates ASK Growth is the strong adherence to this strategy over the long-term and changing market conditions. The investment team has shown impressive execution of the same over the past 2 decades, evident from their consistent outperformance relative to the market.Core Investment Approach
Focus on Domestic Growth-Oriented Businesses:
- Invests in companies with less than 20% revenue from exports, ensuring strong domestic market exposure.
- Targets sectors benefiting from increasing disposable income, urbanization, and economic resurgence.
High-Quality Stock Selection with Strong Fundamentals:
- Companies with Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) >25% and Earnings Growth >15%.
- Focus on competitive advantages, sustainability, and dominant industry positioning.
- Invests in 20-30 businesses with superior long-term compounding potential.
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASK Domestic Resurgence | -8.3 | 10.2 | 17.5 | 11.7 |
| S&P BSE 500 | -6.6 | 14.7 | 19.2 | 14.4 |
| Alpha over Broad Mkt BM | -1.7 | -4.5 | -1.7 | -2.7 |
Performance as of: 30-Sep-25 | Inception Date: 21-Jun-18 | Performance are post-fees, pre-taxes. Global funds denominated in USD or fund currency.
Investment team
Bharat Shah | 5-star rated FM
Executive Director | 34 yrs Experience | 18 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Senior FM (Birla MF)
Bharat Shah is a highly respected investments professional, having overseen the growth of ASK PMS to the largest PMS in India over 2 decades. Prior to joining ASK, Bharat Shah was a very well respected equity fund manager at Birla PMS, known for large wealth creation in IT picks. Bharat Shah has been on the board of ASK since 2008.
George Heber Joseph | 4-star rated FM
CIO | 23 yrs Experience | 0 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: JIO BlackRock (CIO), ITI MF (CIO), ICICI Pru (Sr. FM)
George Heber Joseph has been appointed as the new CIO of ASK PMS, bringing with him over 20 years of extensive investment management experience. He played a key role in establishing Jio BlackRock AMC, where he served as CIO, and previously spent more than a decade at ICICI Prudential AMC, managing over USD 2 billion in assets across equity strategies. He has also held leadership roles at ITI AMC. George is a Chartered Accountant and a Management Accountant, with a strong track record in building and managing high-performing investment teams and portfolios.
Sumit Jain | 4-star rated FM
Deputy CIO | 20 yrs Experience | 20 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: First Global (Analyst)
Sumit has been with the ASK group for over 15 years, having started as an analyst to now being responsible for managing portfolios. Prior to joining ASK, Sumit worked as an analyst at First Global tracking the US macroeconomy and the FMCG sector.
Sandip Bansal | 3-star rated FM
Deputy CIO | 22 yrs Experience | 4 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: FM & Head Investment Research (SBI Life), Sell-side Research Analyst (UBS, KIE)
Sandip has 20 years of work experiene (14 of which have been in equity research). Sandip has a strong research & fund management experience, having worked as Fund Manager & Head of Research at SBI Life Insurance prior to joining ASK. Prior to SBI Life, Sandip worked at the sell side with UBS & Kotak Securities. Sandip in a CA and an MBA (IIM-A)
