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ASK Financial Opportunities

Scheme Rating

IME Scheme Rating

3 of 5 stars

A call on the specific theme: We typically do not recommend Thematic funds to investors, since it requires getting in and out of the theme at the right time. Typically a strong contra approach (investing in themes when they are out of favour, and getting out when they are popular) leads to better performance, but this is very hard to actually implement in practice given strong behavioural instincts against such an approach (investors often end up entering themes post a run-up, which can often be the worst time to invest). In our view, thematic funds are primarily suitable for more astute investors who have a deep underlying understanding of the investment merits of the theme.

IME Strategy Rating

3 of 5 stars

Highly Focussed Financial Sector Strategy: It is a concentrated approach with Laser-focused on the Financial Sector on the back of a very strong rationale for the same. It buys businesses with a large competitive advantage in the Finance Sector with a large size of opportunity, that offer superior growth over long period of time

PMS Scheme Ratings are driven by IME’s Proprietary Scheme Rating Methodology, which takes into account our ratings of the Scheme’s investment strategy, its maturity, the investment team, and our separate rating on the AMC that runs this particular scheme. Our views on each of these individual criteria are available via the IME RMS – which you can view by reaching out to one of our relationship managers (using either the live chat or book appointment feature on this site).

IME View on ASK Financial Opportunities

Type: BFSI | Sectoral | AUM (268.6 cr) | Inc Date (26 Jun 2018)

Financial Opportunities Strategy

RATIONALE

  • Attractive long term growth opportunity
  • Backbone of any economy with linkages across sectors
  • Well regulated sector

BEST WAY TO PLAY CONSUMPTION + SAVINGS + INVESTMENT

  • Consumption: through Banks (retail and corporate)
  • Savings and Financialisation: NBFCs (Housing Finance, Asset Finance and MFIs) and Insurance (Life and General)
  • Investment Revival: Fee Focussed (AMCs, Brokerages, Exchanges, and Rating Agencies)

Investment Philosophy

The ASK Growth portfolio focuses on investing in well-established companies that have a large ‘size of opportunity’, while ensuring that all investee companies have a high level of earnings growth, business & management quality and an attractive price-value gap.

ASK’s investment philosophy revolves around 2 key aspects: capital protection followed by capital appreciation. The aim is to invest in high-quality businesses, run by high-quality management with sustained long-term growth prospects at a reasonable price. The focus is on certainty & consistency of earnings (vs. mere quantum of earnings growth) & buying high quality at a reasonable price (vs. buying mediocre companies at value prices).

KEY ASPECTS OF INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY

Investments in ASK India Select Portfolio are driven by the following key investment attributes:

  • Size of Opportunity: Size of Pond vs. Size of Fish, Dominance, Resilience, Liquidity
  • Quality of Business: High quality of business (superior ROCE), Strong moat, Impregnability, Sustainability, Key pivot of strong wealth creation 
  • Earnings Growth: Quantum, Consistency, Durability, Predating (early vs later), Compounding power
  • Value: Favourable price-value gap, Margin of Safety
  • Management Quality: Good management quality is a given constant

Trailing Performance

1yr 3yr 5yr Since Inception
ASK Financial Opportunities 24.3 6.5 10.5 9.3
S&P BSE 500 TRI 41.1 18.4 22.4 16.4
Alpha over Broad Mkt BM -16.8 -11.9 -11.9 -7.1

Performance as of: 30-Sep-24 | Inception Date: 26-Jun-18

Fund Managers

Bhavesh Kanani | 4-star rated FM

Fund Manager | 21 yrs Experience | 12 yrs at current firm

Past Experience: Assistant VP (Centrum Institutional Research), Research Analyst (Sharekhan), Research Associate (Bank of America, Citigroup Investment Research and Aranca)

Bhavesh Kanani comes with over 15 years of experience. Prior to joining ASK Group in 2013, Bhavesh was an Assistant VP at Centrum Institutional Research, and has previously held the role of Research Analyst/Associates across various financial companies (Sharekhan, Bank of America, Citigroup etc). Bhavesh holds an MBA from ICFAI Business School and a bachelor’s from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

Fee Structure

Fee StructureFee
Fixed Fee Structure2.5
Variable Fee Structures1.5% fixed + 20% above 8% hurdle
Exit Fees

AMC

AMC: ASK PMS (click link for detailed AMC review)

Highly recommended for more conservative investors: ASK has a number of positives, which has led to them becoming the market leader. Strict adherence to a clearly defined investment policy, along with a strong & stable in-house grown investment team, is what helps set them apart and deliver consistent and attractive long-term returns. The majority stake (75%) of ASK's asset management business was acquired by Blackstone in Feb-22. We have recently downgraded ASK's rating to 4-star, keeping in mind the sharp underperfomance since 2022 (which we believe should be transitory in nature). As performance comes back, ASK's rating could be upgraded to a 5-star.

AMC Rating

4 of 5 stars

AMC Pedigree

5 of 5 stars

AMC Size

5 of 5 stars

Team Pedigree

5 of 5 stars

Inv Philosophy

5 of 5 stars

Performance

3 of 5 stars

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