Best Manager In 2015

1. Chirag Setalvad, HDFC Mutual Fund

Over the years, Setalvad has established his credentials as a quality fund manager, especially in the mid-cap
space. He has proven his ability to execute the fund’s strategy across bull and bear phases of the market. He
prefers quality businesses growing at a healthy rate of at least 15-20% annually and generating a free cash flow
on a consistent basis. Setalvad also insists on taking advantage of market dips while buying these stocks,
invests with a time horizon of 3-5 years and keeps a low portfolio turnover.

2. Neelesh Surana, Mirae Asset Global Investments

Surana’s funds have been outperforming both the benchmark index and category peers since inception. His
funds, Mirae Asset India Opportunities and Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip, have been table toppers in their
respective categories, even as they have kept risk significantly low. He believes that alpha (return higher than
benchmark) can be generated through the right set of stocks, not by sector rotation. This is the reason he
doesn’t deviate significantly in terms of sector allocation relative to the benchmark. He prefers quality, growth-
oriented businesses, but only at a reasonable price and likes to hold the stocks for long periods.

3. Vinit Sambre, DSP Blackrock Mutual Fund

His ability to capture the market upside is much better than most peers and he is also good at containing the
downside risk. His strength lies in extensive bottom-up research, identifying strong, growth-oriented
businesses with healthy cash flows and supported by capable management. Sambre doesn’t like to be tied
down to the benchmark index. He adopts an unconstrained, freewheeling approach. His top sector bets bear a
marked contrast to both benchmark and category peers.

4. Sohini Andani, SBI Mutual Fund

The only woman fund manager on this list, and one among a handful across the entire industry, Andani has
emerged as a dependable name over the past few years. Delivering healthy returns in a highly uncertain
economic environment has been a challenge, she acknowledges, but it is one she relishes as a fund manager.
With a predominantly growth-oriented, bottom-up strategy, Andani prefers asset-light businesses, which
provide an earnings visibility of at least 3-5 years, with an ability to generate a healthy cash flow, and where
the size of opportunity is sufficiently large.

5. Kenneth Andrade, IDFC Mutual Fund

Andrade’s days as a mutual fund manager will soon be behind him as he is on the verge of exiting his current
position of CIO at IDFC Mutual Fund. Under his stewardship, IDFC Premier Equity has built a solid track record
in the mid- and small-cap segment, and it is not surprising that he makes the grade in our ranking. His knack
for spotting future growth leaders early on in their business cycles, and holding on to them as the growth story
played out, has been responsible for the fund’s stellar long-term performance.

6. Harshad Patwardhan, JP Morgan Mutual Fund

Patwardhan boasts a good performance track record. His investing style is built on three pillars. Given the
nature of our economy, he seeks businesses which offer significant growth compounding opportunities over
long periods of time. He believes that stock prices tend to track business values over long periods, though,
sometimes, these move in a way that is not reflective of the value addition in the business.He only looks at the
aggregate sectoral exposure to ensure he is not overexposed to a particular sector. Patwardhan follows a
benchmark-agnostic style of portfolio construction, willing to deviate substantially from the benchmark in
order to generate alpha for investors.

7. Sailesh Raj Bhan

For this experienced hand, there is never a dull day in office and the market is always ripe with opportunities
to invest. Managing Rs 14,035 crore of assets, Bhan adopts a predominantly bottom-up approach, though he
does take the top down view to identify pockets where there might be value. Bhan focuses not only on
generating alpha, but also retaining it over the years. That is why he stresses on holding businesses for at least
7-8 years. He doesn’t shy away from taking significant sector deviations but limits aggressive exposure to three
sectors at a time and maintains a reasonably diversified portfolio of stocks.

8. Anoop Bhaskar, UTI Mutual Fund

Bhaskar likens his role of a fund manager to running a marathon. His performance is reflective of this
approach–his funds have been steady and dependable performers over the years, coming out stronger over an
entire market cycle. Under his watch, barring one calender year, his funds have have always outperformed the
category peers.The riskreward profile of his funds also tends to be superior to many of his peers.

9. Jayesh Shroff, SBI Mutual Fund

The dynamic nature of his chosen profession is what drives Shroff to deliver his very best.He doesn’t like to be
pigeonholed into a particular style of investing and is comfortable making use of both growth and value
approaches in his portfolio, albeit leaning more towards the former. Shroff makes no compromise on the
quality of management driving the business even if it means forgoing returns in the short term, or even if
quality is available only at a premium. He admits that resisting the temptation to generate short-term return is
a challenge, but insists that it should never come at the cost of diluting the central philosophy of the fund.

10. R Srinivasan

Srinivasan becomes uneasy when any of his funds climbs to the top of the performance charts. The reason is
simple: the attention it generates results in a sudden, large flow of money to the fund, which poses a problem
as a fund manager. However, he can blame his own investing acumen for this because his funds often find
themselves among the table toppers. For instance, two of his funds–SBI Magnum Balanced Fund and SBI Small
and Midcap Fund–have been featuring among the top three in their respective categories for the past three
years.
 Best fund managers in 2016

Best Fund Managers in 2017

Morningstar India to bring you its comprehensive annual study of the best equity
fund managers based on their 5-year performance.

 The study was restricted to open ended, actively managed, diversified equity
funds.
 Only funds with a corpus of at least Rs 200 crore were considered.
 The performance period was July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2017.
 For a fund to qualify, the fund manager needed a minimum 2-year track
record with that fund as a lead manager. While identifying the lead fund
manager of each scheme, only the primary fund manager mentioned in the
scheme's fact sheet was considered.
 The study was restricted to fund managers cumulatively managing an AUM of
at least Rs 500 crore, across all qualifying funds.
 After short-listing the fund managers, the aggregate returns generated by
each fund manager were calculated over the 5-year period for all the funds
managed by him which satisfied the qualifying criteria. The returns were then
adjusted for risk.

 Neelesh Surana

 AMC: Mirae Asset Global Investments

 5-year asset weighted return: 26%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 2,282 cr
 Funds: Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip, Mirae Asset India Opportunities,
Mirae Asset Tax Saver

R Janakiraman
  AMC: Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund
 5-year asset weighted return: 25.98%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 7,333 cr
 Funds: Franklin India Opportunities, Franklin India Prima, Franklin India
Smaller Companies

Sohini Andani

 AMC: SBI Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 22.61%
 Average 5-YEAR AUM: Rs 4,824 cr
 Funds: SBI Banking and Financial Services, SBI Bluechip, SBI Magnum
Midcap

Chirag Setalvad

 AMC: HDFC Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 24.69%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 10,420 cr
 Funds: HDFC LT Advantage, HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities, HDFC Small Cap

Vinit Sambre

 AMC: DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 28.51%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 3,655 cr
 Funds: DSP BlackRock Micro Cap, DSP BlackRock Small and Midcap

Roshi Jain

 AMC: Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 24.66%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 2,464 cr
 Funds: Franklin India High Growth Companies

Ajay Garg

 AMC: Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 22.03%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 2,155 cr
 Funds: Aditya BSL MNC, Aditya BSL Tax, Aditya BSL Tax Relief 96, Aditya
BSL Tax Saving

Krishnakumar

 AMC: Sundaram Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 25.57%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 5,075 cr
 Funds: Sundaram Diversified Equity, Sundaram Infrastructure Advantage,
Sundaram Rural India, Sundaram Select Mid Cap, Sundaram SMILE

Pankaj Tibrewal  

 AMC: Kotak Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 24.89%
 Average 5-year AUM: Rs 910 cr
 Funds: Kotak Emerging Equity, Kotak Midcap

Mrinal Singh

 AMC: ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

 5-year asset weighted return: 22.38%
  Average 5-year AUM: Rs 8,877 cr
 Funds: ICICI Prudential Dividend Yield Equity, ICICI Prudential Midcap, ICICI
Prudential Select Large Cap, ICICI Prudential Value Discovery

Best Fund Managers in 2018

By Morningstar Analysts |  10-09-18 | 
 
Once again, ET Wealth teamed up with Morningstar India to rank the country’s best
equity fund managers, across categories, based on their 5-year risk-adjusted returns.

Here are the winners.

Large Cap

 Neelesh Surana, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund

 Harsha Upadhyaya, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund
 Sohini Andani, SBI Mutual Fund
 Sailesh Raj Bhan, Reliance Mutual Fund
 Mahesh Patil, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund

Multi Cap

 Jinesh Gopani, Axis Mutual Fund

 Dhimant Shah, Principal Mutual Fund
 Rajeev Thakkar, PPFAS Mutual Fund
 Ajay Garg, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
 Mrinal Singh, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Small and Mid Cap

 Neelesh Surana, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund

 N. Lahiri, L&T Mutual Fund
 Ravi Gopalakrishnan, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund (he has now left this fund
house)
 Anoop Bhaskar, IDFC Mutual Fund (moved from UTI MF to IDFC MF)
 Janakiraman, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund

Best Fund Managers in 2019

Large Cap

 Neelesh Surana, Mirae Asset Global Investments

 Sohini Andani, SBI Mutual Fund
 Shreyash Devalkar, Axis Mutual Fund
 Sailesh Raj Bhan, Reliance Mutual Fund
 Harish krishnan, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund

Multi Cap

 Neelesh Surana, Mirae Asset Global Investments

 Jinesh Gopani, Axis Mutual Fund
 Harsha Upadhyaya Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund
 Rajeev Thakkar, Parag Parikh Mutual Fund
 Dhimant Shah, Principal Mutual Fund
Mid and Small Cap

 Shreyash Devalkar, Axis Mutual Fund

 Srinivasan, SBI Mutual Fund
 Pankaj Tibrewal, Kotak Mahindra Mutual fund
 Jankiraman, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund
 S.N. Lahiri, L&T Mutual Fund

Fund Managers in 2021:

Best Large Cap Fund Managers:

1. Shreyash Devalkar, Senior Fund Manager - Equity, Axis Mutual Fund

2. Shridatta Bhandwaldar, Head of Equities, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund
3. Neelesh Surana, CIO, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund
4. Gaurav Misra, Senior Fund Manager, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund
5. Swati Kulkarni, EVP & Fund Manager - Equity, UTI Mutual Fund

Best Mid & Small Cap Fund Managers:

1. Shreyash Devalkar, Senior Fund Manager - Equity, Axis Mutual Fund

2. Srinivasan, CIO - Equity, SBI Mutual Fund
3. Anupam Tiwari, Fund Manager - Equity, Axis Mutual Fund
4. Harshad Patwardhan, CIO - Equities, Edelweiss Mutual Fund
5. Pankaj Tibrewal, Sr. Vice President & Fund Manager, Kotak Mutual Fund

Best Multi-Cap Fund Managers:

1. Rajeev Thakkar, CIO, PPFAS Mutual Fund

2. Neelesh Surana, CIO, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund
3. Ajay Tyagi, Head of Equities, UTI Mutual Fund
4. Vinay Paharia, CIO, Union Mutual Fund
5. Srinivasan, CIO - Equity, SBI Mutual Fund