Helios Long Short
Our view on the fund, the AMC, the strategy, the performance & the investment team.
IME's Review of Helios Long Short
| Fund Rating | Strategy Rating | Performance Rating |
|---|---|---|
Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade |
View on the Fund
We rate the Helios India Long/Short Fund positively based on the depth of the investment team, the firm’s long operating history in India-focused active management, and a well-articulated long/short framework designed for volatile markets. While the India-domiciled fund has a relatively short standalone performance history, it is backed by a team that has managed India-focused long/short strategies since 2005 through the offshore Helios Strategic fund, which has demonstrated consistent outperformance across market cycles.
Strategy
Long-biased Long Short
Fund's Strategy View
Portfolio construction is anchored in a “rejection-first” framework: stocks are first eliminated based on governance, accounting quality, industry structure, disruption risk, leverage, or valuation concerns, before selecting companies that “cannot be rejected on any factor.” Long positions are built in high-quality businesses across structurally attractive, “non-zero-sum” themes (e.g., private sector penetration, demographic and lifestyle shifts, and India’s factor cost advantages), while short positions are typically taken in single stocks with weak fundamentals, unsustainable leverage, regulatory risks, or excessive valuations. The portfolio is diversified (typically 30–50 longs and 15–25 shorts), with active management of net exposure (generally 30–90%).
Fund Performance
The funds aim to use shorts tactically to reduce portfolio volatility, downside protection during turbulent market conditions. Consistent ability to take such calls is key for low volatility returns over time.
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helios Long Short | 3.2 | 13.3 | 10.3 |
Performance as of: 31-Jan-26 | Inception Date: 09-Dec-22 | Performance are post-fees, pre-taxes. Global funds denominated in USD or fund currency.
Investment team
Dinshaw Irani | 5-star rated FM
CEO | 33 yrs Experience | 21 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Executive Director (Artemis Advisors - Research Advisors to Helios Singapore), Principle Portfolio Manager (SSKI Portfolio Advisors), VP and Analyst - Asian EM (Alliance Capital Management), Analyst (Sun F&C AMC)
Dinshaw Irani is the CIO of Helios India. Prior to this, he was the executive director at Artemis Advisors (exclusive research advisors to Helios Singapore) for 14+ years. Dinshaw started his career as an Analyst at Sun F&C Mutual Fund and at Lloyd Securities. He later went on to become the VP of the Asian Emerging Market team for Alliance Capital (Mumbai) for 3 years covering consumer and pharma sectors.
Samir Arora | 5-star rated FM
Founder & CIO | 35 yrs Experience | 21 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Head of Asian Emerging Markets (Alliance Capital Management)
Samir Arora is the Founder and Fund Manager of Helios Singapore. He has been managing FII funds with India-dedicated long and long-short strategies for the past 17 years at Helios. Prior to Helios, Samir was the Head of Asian Emerging Markets at Alliance Capital Management. He started his career at Alliance Capital as an International Analyst covering sectors in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He later relocated to India as Fund Manager and CIO of Alliance Capital's Mutual Fund business until 2003 before moving to Singapore to become Head of Asian EM. Samir Arora is a highly respected veteran of the Indian markets and has been recognised for his fund management skillsets as evident from the various awards he had won during his tenure at Alliance. He is an MBA graduate from IIM-C and received his undergrad in engineering from IIT Delhi. He also received a master's degree in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
IME's Review of Helios PMS
| AMC Rating | Pedigree Rating | Team Rating | Philosophy Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade |
View on AMC
Helios India operates in close collaboration with Helios Singapore, sharing a common investment team that manages both FII mandates and long-only as well as long-short strategies. With over 25 years of experience in Indian equities, Helios Singapore brings deep institutional memory and market insight. Key team members—Samir Arora and Dinshaw Irani—each have more than two decades of investment experience, reinforcing the fact that Helios India is backed by a seasoned global team and is far more than just another new PMS entrant.
AMC's Pedigree
While Helios PMS is a new entity, this is just the newly incorporated Indian arm of the Helios Singapore, which has managing a highly successful India focused Long-Short strategy (Helios Strategic fund) since 2005. Helios Strategic has been nominated for the Best India Fund by Eurskahedge in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 & 2021 and has won the award in 2007, 2013, 2015 & 2016. Helios Strategic Limited has also received the AsiaHedge Award 2018 for its long term (five years performance).
AMC Team
Samir Arora and Dinshaw Irani have over 25 years of experience each. Arora has managed FII funds at Helios Singapore with an India-dedicated strategy since 2005, while Irani was a research advisor there. The senior team members have worked together for 15-20 years and are skilled in navigating different market conditions. Samir arora is both known as a long-short manager with amongst the longest track records in India, but was also one of the star fund managers during the Indian IT bull run in the late 1990's.
Investment Philosophy
Helios’ investment philosophy is built on a foundation of negative screening, aiming to reduce the risk of poor investment outcomes. Rather than chasing winners, the strategy systematically eliminates weak candidates from a universe of 500 stocks using rigorous filters across opportunity size, governance standards, valuation excesses, disruption risk, management quality, and financial health. This approach strengthens portfolio quality by avoiding fundamentally flawed businesses.
PMS Background
Helios Capital Management India is backed by Helios Capital Management (Singapore), an India-focused investment firm founded in 2005 by Samir Arora along with Dave Williams and Karan Trehan. Helios Singapore holds an 85% stake in Helios Capital India. The Helios platform brings over 25 years of experience in Indian equities, with a long-standing track record in managing India-dedicated FII strategies.
The India platform benefits from shared research, portfolio construction frameworks, and institutional processes with its Singapore parent. The fund management team is led by Samir Arora and Dinshaw Irani—both highly respected market veterans with over 25 years of experience each. Several senior team members have worked together for 15–20 years, providing continuity and cycle-tested decision-making.
Investment Philosophy
Helios believes that consistent long-term returns are driven not only by stock selection but equally by disciplined portfolio construction. Portfolio decisions are guided by clarity on four key dimensions:
- Stock selection: identifying businesses with durable fundamentals
- Time horizon: aligning investment duration with the business cycle
- Portfolio size: determining the optimal number of holdings
- Sell discipline: exiting when fundamentals or valuations deteriorate
Themes to Avoid
- Commodities and highly cyclical businesses
- “One-billion consumer” narratives where opportunity sizing relies purely on population scale
- State-owned enterprises
- Broad macro bets on India without company-level conviction (“bet on India, not on Indians”)
Sell Discipline
Stocks are sold when there is a deterioration in underlying fundamentals, or when stock price performance materially outpaces earnings growth, resulting in stretched valuations.
Portfolio Construction
Helios constructs portfolios using a barbell-style approach, balancing conviction and upside potential:
- High confidence, reasonable return stocks: 10–15 holdings, accounting for 50–60% of portfolio weight
- Reasonable confidence, high return potential stocks: 15–25 holdings, accounting for 40–50% of portfolio weight
Investment Process
- Universe: ~500 listed companies
- Level 1 Screening: Filter down to ~275 stocks based on preferred and avoided themes
- Level 2 Screening: Further filtering based on industry structure, disruption risk, management quality, governance, financial strength, medium-term triggers, and valuation—resulting in ~150 stocks
- Level 3 Screening: Rigorous bottom-up research to narrow the universe to ~60 investable companies
- Final Portfolio: Handpicked selection of 30–35 stocks with high conviction
Negative Selection–Driven Philosophy: Helios’ investment approach is anchored in systematically eliminating weaker businesses from the investable universe using filters around opportunity size, governance standards, competitive disruption, management quality, financial strength, and valuation exuberance. This process seeks to reduce downside risk by avoiding structurally weak or overhyped businesses.
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