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ASK Growth

Scheme Rating

IME Scheme Rating

4 of 5 stars

Recommended for more Conservative Investors: ASK Growth is one of the very few PMS strategies in India with a 20+ year track record. With a focus on large & mid-caps, this is a more conservative investment approach, suitable for investors with a lower risk-appetitie. While longer-term performance of the strategy has been very strong, performance since 2022 has been very weak (partly driven by the strong outperformance of small-caps, which ASK Growth has very limited exposures to). Given the strong pedigree of the team, we would expect performance to rebound, especially as the market environment changes.

IME Strategy Rating

5 of 5 stars

Large & Mid-cap Focused: Focuses on investing in established companies having large opportunity sizes, and ensuring all investee companies have high earnings growth, business & management quality, and attractive price-value gap. The portfolio is diversified and focuses on the multi-cap. With a 20+ year track record ASK Growth is one of the oldest PMS strategies in the market. The strategy has deliveried consistent & attractive risk-adjusted returns over an extended period of time. ASK Growth also offers superior risk-adjusted returns than small & mid cap strategies, given ASK’s focus on large & mid-caps (over small-caps)

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 Growth

Type: Large & Midcap | GARP | AUM (1650.5 cr) | Inc Date (29 Jan 2001)

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

Investment Process

  • Market Capitalization Filter: Filter top 500 stocks as per market capitalization
  • PBT Filter: 299 Companies with PBT above 200crs for trailing 4 quarters.
  • Management Quality Assessment: Filter 150 based on evaluation of management integrity, vision, execution, capital allocation skills and capital distribution
  • ROCE & Earnings Growth Criteria: Filter 59 stocks with minimum 25% ROCE and minimum 15% earnings growth over the next 3-5 years.
  • Overall Quality with Margin of Safety: 20-25 stocks with an optimal blend of overall characteristics and a minimum Margin of Safety of 15%.

Trailing Performance

1yr 3yr 5yr Since Inception
ASK Growth 32.4 9.7 17.9 19.3
S&P BSE 500 TRI 41.1 18.9 22.9 16.2
Alpha over Broad Mkt BM -8.7 -9.2 -5 3.1
Nifty 500 40.2 17.7 21.5
Alpha over Category BM -7.8 -8 -3.6

Performance as of: 31-Aug-24 | Inception Date: 29-Jan-01

Fund Managers

Sandip Bansal | 4-star rated FM

Senior Portfolio Manager | 21 yrs Experience | 3 yrs at current firm

Past Experience: FM & Head Investment Research (SBI Life), Sell-side Research Analyst (UBS, KIE)

Sandip has 18 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)

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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Note: PMS AMC & Scheme Reviews and Ratings are based on IME Capital’s Proprietary Review and Rating Methodology (read more here: AMC Rating & Scheme Ratings). These reflect the unbiased views of our central research team, based on our assessment of the investment value of these PMS/AIF strategies for our investors. We follow a highly stringent rating-criteria, where approximately 50% of PMS AMC’s & strategies would be rated 2-star or below (this is not meant to indicate that these funds are not investment-worthy, but that they do not currently fulfill the requirements we focus on for recommending funds to our investors — based on our internal views on the merit of the AMC/strategy relative to peers). Reviews & Ratings are primarily based on research of publicly available information (SEBI disclosures, PMS websites, PMS-aggregation platforms, webinar recording, media interviews etc.) and no explicit consent is required from AMCs for the same. While we endeavour to do further due-diligence via direct interactions with the investment teams of AMCs, this is typically restricted to AMC’s that meet our foundational fund selection criteria (reviews on lower-rated AMCs are often based solely on publicly available information). The views reflected in our Reviews & Ratings, are our independent views and may not be shared by the AMC’s and the investment teams. Please read detailed disclaimer for more.

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