Shreyas Devalkar appointed as head of equity at Axis Mutual Fund

Shreyas Devalkar, who manages a few of the prominent equity funds at Axis Mutual Fund , has been appointed as the new Head of Equity at the fund house, effective today. He succeeds Jinesh Gopani, who served as the Head of Equities for the past seven years, and has been an integral part of Axis Mutual Fund over the last 14 years.

Having been associated with the fund house for seven years, Shreyas manages some of the biggest funds in terms of assets, including Axis Bluechip Fund , Axis Midcap Fund , Axis Small Cap Fund , and Axis Flexi Cap Fund . Collectively, he manages assets of over Rs 85,000 crore, as of June end. Before joining Axis, Shreyas honed his expertise in fund management while working with BNP Paribas AMC and IDFC AMC.

B Gopkumar, MD & CEO, Axis Mutual Fund, said, "His (Shreyas Devalkar) dedication and passion for achieving excellence in equity investments have been evident throughout his tenure with us. Having spent a long time with Axis MF, he understands the DNA of the organisation and is well-positioned to navigate market dynamics and deliver exceptional results for our investors."

In March this year, B Gopkumar was appointed as the head of Axis Mutual Fund, succeeding Chandresh Nigam. The fund house had also hired Ashish Gupta as its Chief Investment Officer. Axis Mutual Fund was recently involved in a front-running scandal that led to the suspension of its chief dealer, Viresh Joshi.

Axis AMC has traditionally been biassed towards growth style of investing, but its equity funds have struggled to perform in the past two to three years, with value stocks outperforming. With such a rejig at the fund management level, a fund house would expect a change in fortunes going forward.

The fund house also appointed Shatadru Chakraborty, a Citibank veteran, as the Chief Risk Officer.