Our Investment Philosophy is a Mix of Styles

Kothari Pioneer, the first privately managed mutual fund in the industry took off in 1993. With an asset base of Rs 2615 crore as on May 31, 2001, the AMC manages 21 schemes and unlike its peers, the bulk of the investments are in equity funds. The AMC was the first with an infotech fund while its maiden launch; KP Bluechip has given an impressive return of 23% since launch in 1993. Add to it, it's the only AMC in the industry with in-house registrar and transfer operations. Kothari Pioneer's chief executive officer, Vivek Reddy spoke to Value Research on his outlook for the markets and the AMC's investment strategy. On Equity Markets The Indian market has been in a bear phase for nearly 15 months now. Valuations and key economic indicators are approaching historic lows, although no clear signs of a turnaround are visible yet. We see four possible events that could trigger the markets positively over the next few months: 1) the effect of the high liquidity in the system taking hold 2) progress on divestment 3) a good monsoon and 4) a revival in the US economy. Meanwhile, the near term triggers – the move to rolling settlements and quarterly results – will do little to lift the market. We expect the markets to start moving in a northward direction in th