Slowing Economy is my Anxiety

Although a late entrant in the mutual funds business, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund has attained a critical mass with Assets under Management at Rs 1300 crore on May 31, 2001. Barring a tax-planner, the AMC currently offers a range of basic fund products, supplemented by MNC and technology funds. The pioneer in gilt and fixed maturity segments, the AMC has received healthy inflows in its bond funds. On the other hand, its equity funds have failed to make a mark, impacted by the sustained downturn in the markets. Kotak Mahindra AMC's chief executive officer, Chandrashekhar Sathe comments on a range of issues, specific to his funds and the broad markets. On extending the tie up with Old Mutual to asset management business CS: Kotak Mahindra greatly values partnerships. It has an impressive record of attracting some of world's best names as joint venture partners. We have Goldman Sachs in investment banking and stock brokerage business, Ford Credit in auto finance and Old Mutual in insurance. Currently, there are no plans to induct a partner in the AMC. On maintaining a diversified portfolio in K-30 and K-Balance after the tech debacle of 2000 CS: In addition to K 30 and K Balance, K MNC is a well-diversified portfolio. (K MNC is not a sector fund). They will continue to remain well-diversified. The sector allocations can only marginally change without affecting the diversified nature of the portfolio. On checks and balances needed to stay diversified CS: I think a fund should limit to what extent it is willing to go overweight or underweight on a particular sector. The extent of overweight or underweight can be understood in terms of variance from a broad market indicator such as the NIFTY or the Sensex. One can have absolute limits