ASK Multicap AIF

Investment Strategy

ASK Multicap Fund is an open-ended Category III AIF that follows a long-term, high-quality investment approach focused on Indian entrepreneurial businesses. The strategy emphasises investing in companies with strong governance, superior growth potential, and disciplined capital allocation, applying ASK’s proven GARP (Growth at the Right Price) philosophy across market cycles.

Core Investment Approach

Focus on High-Quality, Growth-Oriented Businesses

• Invests in entrepreneurial businesses with a demonstrated track record of vision, innovation, and execution excellence.
• Targets companies with high capital efficiency, strong competitive moats, and scalable business models.

Rigorous, Filter-Based Stock Selection

• Preference for companies with meaningful promoter or family ownership (generally 25% or higher, excluding BFSI).
• Focus on businesses with proven earnings growth, typically exceeding 20% CAGR.
• Emphasis on high capital efficiency, with ROCE generally above 25%.
• Strong evaluation of capital allocation discipline and governance standards.

Balanced Multi-Cap Portfolio Construction

• Avoids artificial large-cap or mid-cap biases, instead focusing on companies with the right long-term growth trajectory.
• Emphasises the size of the opportunity (“size of the pond”) rather than the current size of the business (“size of the fish”).

Key Investment Attributes

• Size of Opportunity: Evaluation of market dominance, resilience, liquidity, and opportunity size relative to the company’s scale.
• Business Quality: Focus on high-quality businesses with superior ROCE, durable competitive moats, and long-term sustainability.
• Earnings Growth: Assessment of the quantum, consistency, durability, and compounding potential of earnings growth.
• Valuation Discipline: Investments made with a favourable price–value gap and an adequate margin of safety.
• Management Quality: High standards of promoter integrity, execution capability, and capital allocation treated as a constant requirement.

PMS Background

ASK is one of the oldest and largest PMS houses in India, having commenced operations in 1983 under the leadership of Asit Koticha. The firm has a singular focus on discretionary listed Indian equity mandates and places strong emphasis on mindset and philosophy alignment with clients. Over the years, ASK has built a reputation for disciplined execution, supported by a stable, in-house research team and a clearly defined investment process. Fund managers are typically groomed internally, ensuring continuity and consistency in philosophy and decision-making.

Investment Philosophy

The investment philosophy is anchored in a FOCUS-driven framework designed to identify high-quality businesses capable of generating sustainable long-term wealth across market cycles. The approach combines fundamental analysis, assessment of structural growth opportunities, cycle awareness, competitive strength, and valuation discipline to deliver consistent, risk-adjusted outcomes while protecting capital.

• Fundamentals: Emphasis on strong balance sheets, healthy cash flows, and consistent profitability. Focus on business quality, resilience across cycles, and disciplined capital allocation, with priority given to sustainability of returns rather than short-term earnings volatility.
• Opportunity Size & Scalability: Preference for businesses operating in large and expanding opportunity sets, supported by structural growth tailwinds and favourable industry dynamics. Focus on scalability and long-term demand visibility without excessive reliance on leverage.
• Cycles & Capital Allocation: Recognition that both markets and businesses move through cycles. Active evaluation of cycle positioning, with emphasis on management prudence during upcycles and discipline during downturns. Willingness to invest in cyclical recoveries or structural improvements where risk–reward is favourable.
• Unmatched Moats: Focus on companies with durable competitive advantages such as brand leadership, economies of scale, network effects, technology edge, or regulatory protection. Strong moats support pricing power, margin stability, and resilience to competitive disruption.
• Margin of Safety & Stewardship: Embedded risk management through valuation discipline and governance standards. Investments are made at reasonable valuations relative to intrinsic value, with strong emphasis on ethical leadership, shareholder alignment, and long-term stewardship to preserve capital while retaining upside.

In essence, the FOCUS framework integrates quality, growth, cycle awareness, competitive strength, and valuation discipline into a cohesive investment approach. By remaining anchored to business fundamentals and long-term value creation, the philosophy seeks to deliver consistent wealth creation while minimising the risk of permanent capital impairment.

Suitable For

Investors seeking exposure to high-quality businesses with an emphasis on consistency, capital protection, and long-term compounding rather than aggressive return maximisation.