Waqar Naqvi, is CEO of Taurus Mutual Fund, where he is in charge of running day to day business of the organisation and leading the team of functional heads.
He has close to 17 years of experience in investment, finance and mutual fund industry, his extensive career spans across all facets of financial services especially all functions of asset finance and asset management. Employers in his resume include Thermax, Apple Finance, Escorts Finance and GE TFS. In his last assignment before he joined Taurus Mutual Fund, Naqvi was Business Head, Portfolio Management Services and Offshore / International Business at Birla Sun Life AMC.
Naqvi an ICWA from the 1991 batch, and an MBA specialized in Finance and Marketing
Here are some excerpts from an exclusive interview with Waqar Naqvi.
Give us an idea about the investment philosophy of Taurus MF?
We believe that when we are buying stocks we are buying businesses and our analysis and research also looks at it the same way. We use both the top down and bottom up approach. We look at stocks which can give appreciation in the medium to long term and which are sound businesses.
Tell us about the structure of your research team?
We have at this point in time, three fund managers on the equity side, one fund manager for fixed income, two dealers and 5 research personnel. The Equity side reports into the Head of Equity Investments and the Fixed Income side reports into the Fund Manager Fixed Income.
What do you look for in a stock before taking a buy call?
We believe in picking stocks which are in line with the objective of the offer document, have a sustainable story and whose growth prospects are good. We also pay attention to the cash and receivables position of the prospective company whose stock we may buy into and the credibility of the management.
Give us your outlook for the market for 2009?
With one more repo cut and reverse repo rate cut behind us now, we feel that the interest rates may decline in the short term, the inflation will correspondingly come down some more, given also the fall in the crude oil prices. However very low interest rates may not be sustainable for a growing economy like India and with the base effect gone we might see a rise in inflation with inflation climbing back to approx 6% levels by early 2010. The downside to the markets, in our opinion is now extremely limited, the stability in businesses should start becoming visible by the last quarter of calendar year 2009, which would have seen two bad quarters (March end and June end) and one mediocre quarter (Sept end). We see the market beginning to recover by end 2009, although a real bull rally would still be some distance away by then.
Are you building a defensive portfolio to safeguard investor value in the current volatile markets?
We have already built a defensive portfolio and this has seen our Taurus Tax Shield out performing its peers consistently. Taurus Bonanza (our large cap fund) and Taurus Starshare (our multicap fund) have also done exceedingly well. We have had a component of approx 25% to 29% cash in our portfolios over the past couple of months, apart from a large share in defensive stocks.
What made you launch Taurus Ethical Fund, which is based upon the Shariah investment principals?
It is a socially responsible fund. Shariah Compliance is just one part of it. We feel, people coming from all walks of life, geographically, regionally, linguistically, socially r otherwise have similar values and follow them in spirit. This fund just defines them in a more focused manner. We also feel there will be interest in places outside India in this fund and there was a space for this fund which is line with our philosophy of launching funds which are considered as good ideas by our think tank.
According to you, has the slow down in corporate earnings been sufficiently built into the prices as of now?
More or less, yes. Unless there are some rude surprises, we feel it has been factored in.
In 2008 mutual fund industry went through a lot of pain, what`s your outlook for the industry in 2009?
2008 was a double whammy with stock market tumbling and an unprecedented liquidity crunch at the same time. We see the liquidity has been improving since January 2009 and should keep on improving from April onwards further. Factors which need to be watched out for are the Government borrowing programme. The industry should fare better in 2009 compared to 2008, although the growth may be flat or only marginally up in 2009. Yet the pain points of 2008 would not be there.
He has close to 17 years of experience in investment, finance and mutual fund industry, his extensive career spans across all facets of financial services especially all functions of asset finance and asset management. Employers in his resume include Thermax, Apple Finance, Escorts Finance and GE TFS. In his last assignment before he joined Taurus Mutual Fund, Naqvi was Business Head, Portfolio Management Services and Offshore / International Business at Birla Sun Life AMC.
Naqvi an ICWA from the 1991 batch, and an MBA specialized in Finance and Marketing
Here are some excerpts from an exclusive interview with Waqar Naqvi.
Give us an idea about the investment philosophy of Taurus MF?
We believe that when we are buying stocks we are buying businesses and our analysis and research also looks at it the same way. We use both the top down and bottom up approach. We look at stocks which can give appreciation in the medium to long term and which are sound businesses.
Tell us about the structure of your research team?
We have at this point in time, three fund managers on the equity side, one fund manager for fixed income, two dealers and 5 research personnel. The Equity side reports into the Head of Equity Investments and the Fixed Income side reports into the Fund Manager Fixed Income.
What do you look for in a stock before taking a buy call?
We believe in picking stocks which are in line with the objective of the offer document, have a sustainable story and whose growth prospects are good. We also pay attention to the cash and receivables position of the prospective company whose stock we may buy into and the credibility of the management.
Give us your outlook for the market for 2009?
With one more repo cut and reverse repo rate cut behind us now, we feel that the interest rates may decline in the short term, the inflation will correspondingly come down some more, given also the fall in the crude oil prices. However very low interest rates may not be sustainable for a growing economy like India and with the base effect gone we might see a rise in inflation with inflation climbing back to approx 6% levels by early 2010. The downside to the markets, in our opinion is now extremely limited, the stability in businesses should start becoming visible by the last quarter of calendar year 2009, which would have seen two bad quarters (March end and June end) and one mediocre quarter (Sept end). We see the market beginning to recover by end 2009, although a real bull rally would still be some distance away by then.
Are you building a defensive portfolio to safeguard investor value in the current volatile markets?
We have already built a defensive portfolio and this has seen our Taurus Tax Shield out performing its peers consistently. Taurus Bonanza (our large cap fund) and Taurus Starshare (our multicap fund) have also done exceedingly well. We have had a component of approx 25% to 29% cash in our portfolios over the past couple of months, apart from a large share in defensive stocks.
What made you launch Taurus Ethical Fund, which is based upon the Shariah investment principals?
It is a socially responsible fund. Shariah Compliance is just one part of it. We feel, people coming from all walks of life, geographically, regionally, linguistically, socially r otherwise have similar values and follow them in spirit. This fund just defines them in a more focused manner. We also feel there will be interest in places outside India in this fund and there was a space for this fund which is line with our philosophy of launching funds which are considered as good ideas by our think tank.
According to you, has the slow down in corporate earnings been sufficiently built into the prices as of now?
More or less, yes. Unless there are some rude surprises, we feel it has been factored in.
In 2008 mutual fund industry went through a lot of pain, what`s your outlook for the industry in 2009?
2008 was a double whammy with stock market tumbling and an unprecedented liquidity crunch at the same time. We see the liquidity has been improving since January 2009 and should keep on improving from April onwards further. Factors which need to be watched out for are the Government borrowing programme. The industry should fare better in 2009 compared to 2008, although the growth may be flat or only marginally up in 2009. Yet the pain points of 2008 would not be there.
Source:http://www.myiris.com/mutual/news/interArt.php?file=20090313144757196&secID=mftalkiris&secTitle=Talking%20to%20IRIS&dir=2009/03/13/20090313144757196.htm
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