'We have been on the side of quality and relative growth for most of our funds'

Shreyash Devalkar took over as the Head of Equity at Axis Mutual Fund in August 2023. Currently, he manages around 17 schemes of the AMC with total assets under management worth Rs 1.56 lakh crore. In a recent interview, Devalkar discusses his journey into finance, investment mantra and strategies for managing the funds. He also provided his insights into improving the performance of some of the AMC's key funds. Here is are some edited excerpts from the interview. What led you to the world of finance after doing your engineering? After completing my engineering and especially while working for two years in the industry, economies and markets were going from boom to bust cycle in the period of 2000. It was interesting to read a lot of analysis on the same and tech bubble / bust. The action in the economy and market created my interest in the field of investing. Further, during my two-year work period post engineering involved a lot of financial and commercial aspects of project appraisals. Hence, I did my master's in management studies (MMS) to further hone my skills in the different aspects of financials. Post MMS, I entered the financial world doing various roles, including credit research analysis in banks. When it comes to finance, and more so in equities, investment has always been an exciting profession. Investment not only includes number financial modelling, but more importantly involves understanding the company and analysing industries. It's about evaluating a business at its core level. Later, I progressed towards the factors that started affecting the market capitalisation and valuation of various companies. So, this entire journey has been exciting then and even now. You started as a research analyst working with IDFC Securities and later with IDFC AMC. How did the migration from the sell side to the buy side happen? And what key lessons did you learn during that time? Being a good equity analyst is core to the investment process, whether the role one plays is that of a buy side analyst or sell side analyst, or even a fund manager. Even in my current role as head of equity at Axis Mutual Fund, the effort is always to be a better analyst as that is the key to returns. Normally on the sell-side, an analyst covers fewer sectors and hence goes deeper into a particular sector. But then you get restricted in