Interview

Get the Big Picture

Dhimant Shah, Fund Manager, Principal Mutual Fund, tells us how his fund has delivered spectacular performance in 2012...

Principal Emerging Bluechip, the fund you manage, is up 52 per cent year to date so far, the best among the mid- and small-cap funds. What reasons do you attribute to this success? There are a few reasons; firstly, we focused on stock picking, we built our position in stocks where we had conviction and held on to them. This also meant that we reduced the number of stocks in the fund and made it a more focused portfolio. While picking stocks we were focused on those companies that had growth, free cash flows and sensible cash allocation policy from the company’s management. We also got certain themes right, for instance, we were early into media, cement, etc. We remain fully invested through the year and did not have any cash call, this also helped in our performance. Can you please explain the process part of it? There are a couple of processes that have helped us. Firstly, the use of our in-house stock screening model which flags off companies for further analysis. Then, there is a rigorous follow up for companies that we invest in – be it quarterly updates or interaction with the management to ensure that things are on track. Last but not the least, we are always on the lookout for new ideas especially in the mid-cap portfolio, these can make a difference to the performance. I think these processes that we follow, apart from the regular screening of companies that meet our d


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