'We have a clear preference for large caps now'

R Srinivasan joined SBI Mutual Fund in May 2009 as a Senior Fund Manager and climbed up the ranks to become their Chief Investment Officer (CIO) - Equity. He now manages an impressive Rs 1.6 lakh crore in assets across seven funds. A seasoned hand at managing public money, Srinivasan has been at the helm of SBI's Small Cap, Focused Equity and Equity Hybrid Fund for more than a decade now. While the past couple of years may have seen a dip in his funds' performance, the long-term narrative is nothing short of stellar, with these funds consistently outshining both the benchmark and their peers, often by a striking margin. Hence, it was timely that we spoke with Srinivasan recently to understand the reasons behind the funds' underperformance and return expectations going forward. You mentioned earlier that the past performance of SBI Small Cap Fund is not replicable at the current size. What are your return aspirations for the fund at this point? We started managing this as a small-cap strategy in 2013 and completed 10 years with a CAGR of 28 per cent or 12.5x since. Our target today is more like a return of 20-odd per cent. This may be tough to achieve from these levels over the short

This article was originally published on January 10, 2024.