ASK Indian Entrepreneur (IEP)
ASK PMS | Equity | | PMSIME's View on ASK Indian Entrepreneur (IEP)
Strategy
Focused on Promoter Run Companies
Investment Fund
ASK IEP (Indian Entrepreneur Fund) focuses on investing in Indian businesses where the founder/promoter holding must be greater than 25%. This is driven by a philosophy that a high quality promoter, is instrumental in driving business growth. The strategy was launched in 2010, and has a very strong long-term track record. However, performance has dipped significantly since 2022 (can be partly linked to the strong outperformance of small-caps, while IEP has a much higher large & mid exposure), which we would expect to rebound given the strong pedigree of both the investment team and the longer-term track record of this strategy.
Fund's Strategy View
Focuses on investing in promoter-run companies, driven by a belief that a high-quality promoter is key to driving strong business growth. Portfolio seeks high-quality businesses with strong earnings growth (without capital dilution) with a sizeable growth runway. It has about 10-year track record delivering consistent returns. Performing well since inception.
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 has been consistent, with the fund having outperformed it's benchmark in over 60% of annual calendar 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 Philosophy
ASK’s Indian Entrepreneur Portfolio (IEP) focuses on companies run by Indian entrepreneurs with adequate skin in the game (a high level of promoter ownership). The aim is to identify promoters who have demonstrated high standards of governance, vision, execution, capital allocation, and capital distribution skills. Within this universe, the portfolio seeks out high-quality businesses that have strong earnings growth (without capital dilution) with a sizeable growth runway.Key Investment Attributes
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
The investment process is driven by a gradual filtering down of companies in a wider universe, based on specific criteria that ASK focuses on:- 500: Start with top 500 as per mkt cap
- 306: Companies with >25% promoter/family holding
- 210: Condition of minimum 100 Cr Trailing PBT
- 123: Subjective evaluation of management quality, vision, capital allocation, past track record, corporate governance standards among others
- 59: Rigorous filters of minimum of 25% of ROCE (capital efficiency)
- 20: Finally an investment approach emerges of 20 businesses based on 1) earnings growth of 20-25% over the next 3-5 years without capital dilution and 2) margin of safety of 20% on intrinsic value
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASK Indian Entrepreneur (IEP) | -9.2 | 7.8 | 14.8 | 16.1 |
| S&P BSE 500 | -6.6 | 14.7 | 19.2 | 12.8 |
| Alpha over Broad Mkt BM | -2.6 | -6.9 | -4.4 | 3.3 |
Performance as of: 30-Sep-25 | Inception Date: 25-Jan-10 | 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)
