Know Your Fund Manager | Sorbh Gupta, Head- Equity, Bajaj Finserv AMC

Let's start with your personal story

I was born in Binnaguri, near Darjeeling in West Bengal, where my father worked as a tea estate manager. I spent my childhood in Darjeeling and completed my primary education at a convent boarding school there. Later, I moved to Alwar, Rajasthan, where I finished my schooling and graduation.

During my Chartered Accountant course in Alwar, particularly during my articleship, I developed a keen interest in equities. My father entrusted me with ₹25,000, a significant amount at that time, to invest in the stock market. I engaged in active trading, but in the process lost a large portion of the corpus. This experience made me realize that there is indeed a method to the madness, and that investing is fundamentally different from trading.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, I moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in equity markets. While working there, I also completed my CFA course, further strengthening my expertise in finance and investments.

How did you land up in this job?

In my previous role at Quantum Asset Management, I worked as a Fund Manager, overseeing Indian equity mandates for global pension funds and endowments, as well as managing equity funds for domestic mutual investors. At Bajaj AMC, I had the opportunity to build the equity team from the ground up, which was an exciting challenge and a key reason I decided to join.

Currently, I serve as Head of Equity, where I manage Indian equity mandates of global pension funds & endowments also managing equity funds of domestic mutual fund. These experiences have reinforced the importance of having a well-defined investment philosophy and a disciplined investment process.

Which funds are you currently managing?

I oversee 10 active funds (8 equity & 2 hybrids) with a total AUM of approximately Rs 14,395.63 crore.

What is your investment philosophy and how will you describe your investment strategy?

Our investment philosophy is based on INQUBE. It represents Information Edge, Quantitative Edge and Behavioural Edge, to beat the market with better information. The information edge collects relevant data about the economy, markets, and companies and the quantitative edge uses analytical skills to create sophisticated predictive models and algorithms that efficiently process the information that is already accessible. Additionally, behavioural edge helps in gaining advantage by acting with superior behaviour in response to available inputs to maximize alpha. This includes developing a set of processes and tools that help reduce one’s behavioural mistakes and understand the crowd or market behaviour. Each fund has its own investment strategy and all funds adhere to the INQUBE philosophy and set processes in the department.

What gives you the kick while managing other people's money?

The mutual fund industry is one of the few businesses where doing right by the customer is not just noble—it's profitable. When your client gets richer, so do you. It’s capitalism with a conscience. That’s the most beautiful part of the industry. There are many industries where success (higher revenues) often comes at the expense of the consumer’s long-term well-being.

Investors bestow a lot of faith on fund managers to generate returns and help them achieve financial goals. It’s an enormous responsibility and the whole process of picking the right investments to generate superior returns for investors is very satisfying.