Manish Gunwani is IDFC Mutual Fund's new head of equity

Previously associated with Nippon India Mutual Fund, Manish Gunwani will take over the reins from Anoop Bhaskar as the head of equities at IDFC Mutual Fund.

Sources in the industry say the outgoing Bhaskar will stay at IDFC for another month or two to ensure a smooth transition.

It is likely that Gunwani will manage funds helmed by Bhaskar, though we are yet to receive an official confirmation.

Who is Manish Gunwani?
Gunwani was the equities chief investment officer (CIO) at Nippon India Mutual Fund until he stepped down on January 1, 2023. The news of Gunwani leaving was announced last November. During his reign, Gunwani steered Nippon India's equity assets to grow more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

Before this, he was the deputy CIO (Equities) at ICICI Prudential AMC, where he was instrumental in scaling two flagship funds to a cumulative AUM (the sum total of all its investments) of over Rs 35,000 crore.

With an overall mutual fund industry experience of nearly 25 years, Gunwani is known to lean towards 'growth at reasonable price' style of investing. You can read about his investment philosophy here.

What next for Anoop Bhaskar?
Meanwhile, Anoop Bhaskar, who joined IDFC Mutual Fund in early 2016, is expected to take a short break.

Bhaskar was managing several funds, such as IDFC Core Equity, IDFC Emerging Businesses, IDFC Flexi Cap, IDFC Hybrid Equity and IDFC Sterling Value. His track record with the funds is as below:

IDFC Sterling Value was a feather in the cap, giving returns of 17.6 per cent, against the category average of 13.91 per cent. However, he faced challenges running the Flexi Cap and Hybrid Equity funds, both delivering below-average category returns.

Bhaskar has previously plied his trade at UTI Mutual Fund as the head of equity, Sundaram Asset Management, Templeton Asset Management and Shriram Financial Services Ltd.