Invesco Dawn
Our view on the fund, the AMC, the strategy, the performance & the investment team.
IME's Review of Invesco Dawn
| Fund Rating | Strategy Rating | Performance Rating |
|---|---|---|
Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade |
View on the Fund
Invesco Dawn is a large-cap focussed strategy and can be considered. While Invesco PMS suffers from common MF-founded PMS concerns (churn in the investment team, lack of a tightly defined investment strategy), we take into cognizance it's strong performance since inception & the presence of Taher Shah (a senior investment professional).
Strategy
Fund's Strategy View
A portfolio focused on investing in stocks & sectors that are expected to benefit from a cyclical recovery. This would include companies benefiting from an uptick in their business/economic cycle, companies with strong operating & financial leverage, and stocks that are currently out of market favour.
Fund Performance
The fund has outperformed peers in the last 5 year trailing returns. In terms of longer-term annual performance, performance consistency has been mixed, with the fund having outperformed & underperformed the bechmark roughly in half the years.
Trailing Performance
| 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | Since Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invesco Dawn | 3.6 | 14.6 | 16.1 | 9.9 |
| S&P BSE 500 | 6.5 | 15 | 15 | 13.7 |
| Alpha over Broad Mkt BM | -2.9 | -0.4 | 1.1 | -3.8 |
| Nifty 50 | 7.7 | 12.8 | 13.2 | |
| Alpha over Category BM | -4.1 | 1.8 | 2.9 |
Performance as of: 31-Jan-26 | Inception Date: 28-Aug-17 | Performance are post-fees, pre-taxes. Global funds denominated in USD or fund currency.
Investment team
Taher Badshah | 4-star rated FM
CIO | 32 yrs Experience | 9 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Motilal AMC (Head Equities), Kotak International (FM), ICICI Pru PMS (FM)
With over 25 years of investment management experience, Taher is the CIO of Invesco AMC (overseeing both the MF & PMS divisions). Taher was responsible for the stellar growth of Motilal AMC, where he was head of equities over Jun-2010 to Dec-2016. His prior fund management experience includes managing funds at Kotak International and ICICI Pru PMS.
Neelesh Dhamnaskar | 3-star rated FM
Principal Officer & Fund Manager | 21 yrs Experience | 16 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Research Analyst( Enam Securities)
Neelesh has over 17 years’ experience in equity markets and financial services domain. Before joining the PMS division of Invesco, Neelesh was managing few equity funds, overseas fund of fund schemes of Invesco Mutual Fund as well as tracking few sectors as an analyst. He was previously working with Enam(now a part of Axis Bank) where he was tracking companies across sectors and assisting the PMS Fund Manager in his investment decisions. Prior to this, he was working with KRC, a domestic broking house in equity research and has also worked with Anand Rathi Securities Limited as a Commodities Research Analyst. Neelesh holds a Commerce degree and an MMS degree with specialization in Finance from Mumbai University
IME's Review of Invesco PMS
| AMC Rating | Pedigree Rating | Team Rating | Philosophy Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
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View on AMC
Invesco AMC has a strong research process and unique portfolios, but the core investment team is relatively new. The company faces typical challenges of large MF-driven PMS houses, such as PMS being an add-on rather than a separate business unit, team turnover, and a lack of commitment from the CIO. While Invesco has potential in the PMS market, it is too early to recommend significant investments in their strategies due to ongoing leadership changes.
AMC's Pedigree
Invesco's India business, although part of a global investment giant, has not fully reached its potential yet. It benefits from the process orientation of being part of a larger global investment firm.
AMC Team
Amit Nigam and Taher are experienced professionals in the investment industry, with backgrounds in managing smaller AMCs and spearheading growth at Motilal MF. However, their recent recruitment at Invesco AMC has resulted in a lack of continuity in the investment team, impacting the team's pedigree rating.
Investment Philosophy
Investment philosophy is not clearly defined at the PMS level, but at the portfolio level, strategies are well-defined and strictly followed compared to other AMC peer PMSs.
Investment Strategy
Flexible, cycle-aware strategy focused on demand and earnings recovery
Invesco PMS’s DAWN strategy is designed to benefit from cyclical recoveries by investing in stocks and sectors that are transitioning from downturn to expansion. The portfolio targets companies that are out of market favour but stand to benefit disproportionately from an improvement in economic activity, demand revival, and operating leverage.
The strategy follows a bottom-up approach, without any predefined bias towards market capitalisation or sectors, and focuses on identifying businesses where earnings recovery can be meaningfully amplified.
DAWN Framework
- D – Demand Recovery: Businesses witnessing early signs of demand revival, particularly across cyclical and consumer discretionary sectors.
- A – Attractive Valuations: Companies trading below intrinsic value, providing a margin of safety.
- W – Winners in the Next Cycle: Companies positioned to benefit from operating and financial leverage as volumes and utilisation improve.
- N – New Credit & Investment Cycle: Businesses likely to benefit from renewed capex, lending, and investment activity, supporting earnings recovery.
Core Investment Filters
- Cyclical Recovery: Focus on companies transitioning from recessionary phases to expansion within the business cycle.
- Operating & Financial Leverage: Preference for businesses where incremental demand can lead to disproportionate improvement in profitability.
- Value Orientation: Emphasis on valuation comfort alongside recovery potential.
Investment Process
- Initial Universe: Screening across five benchmark indices to identify bottom-up ideas (~313 stocks).
- Stock Categorisation: Shortlisting to ~153 stocks using Invesco’s internal categorisation framework.
- Portfolio Universe: Narrowed down to ~65 stocks with the strongest recovery characteristics.
- Final Portfolio: A concentrated portfolio of 15–25 stocks.
Clearly Defined Strategy
Invesco DAWN follows a well-articulated, cycle-focused investment strategy that is implemented with discipline, aiming to capture earnings and valuation recovery during favourable phases of the business cycle.
PMS Background
Invesco PMS is part of Invesco AMC, a relatively small mutual fund house in India but backed by one of the largest global investment management groups. The AMC is known for its strong emphasis on investment processes and discipline, with a clear focus on staying true to mandate rather than style drift.
While the investment team is experienced and well-regarded, the PMS platform is largely an extension of the broader AMC setup. As a result, it exhibits some of the typical characteristics of AMC-driven PMS structures, including limited founder-led ownership and PMS-specific differentiation.
PMS Investment Philosophy
Invesco PMS does not follow a single, overarching investment philosophy at the PMS level. Instead, investment philosophies are articulated and executed at the individual strategy level, where mandates tend to be clearly defined and tightly managed.
What distinguishes Invesco is its strongly process-driven approach, anchored by a proprietary in-house stock categorisation framework applied across its entire investment universe.
In-house Stock Categorisation Framework
- All companies in the investment universe are classified into defined buckets such as Star, Leader, Warrior, Diamond, Frog Prince, Shotgun, and Commodities.
- This categorisation drives portfolio construction, position sizing, and expectations of risk–return characteristics across strategies.
- The framework helps ensure consistency, discipline, and adherence to mandate across market cycles.
Suitable For
Investors seeking exposure to an established global investment manager with a strong process-driven approach, and the flexibility to perform across varied market conditions, rather than a highly differentiated or founder-led PMS.
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