ETMarkets PMS Talk: From Rs 1 crore to Rs 8.8 crore – Sameeksha Capital’s 26% TWRR journey over a decade, Bhavin Shah decodes

From humble beginnings to delivering one of the most consistent track records in the portfolio management space, Sameeksha Capital’s decade-long journey is a study in disciplined investing.

Under the stewardship of Founder & CIO Bhavin Shah, the Sameeksha India Equity Fund has turned a Rs 1 crore investment at inception in March 2016 into approximately Rs 8.8 crore by July 2025, clocking a time-weighted rate of return (TWRR) of 26% before fees and expenses.

In a conversation with ETMarkets on the sidelines of the APMI conference in Mumbai, Shah breaks down the investment philosophy that powered this growth—rooted in bottom-up fundamental research, a strong macro overlay, rigorous valuation discipline, and a laser focus on risk management—while also highlighting the fund’s ability to generate alpha across market cycles, including downturns.

Edited Excerpts –

Q) Tell us a little about your investment methodology. The Sameeksha India Equity Fund is about to complete 10 years. Please take us through the performance and how much wealth one would have generated if they invested at the launch.

A) Firstly, at Sameeksha, our investment methodology is rooted in bottom-up fundamental analysis with a strong macro overlay.

We build long-term free cash flow or equivalent models for each business based on detailed industry assessments and India’s structural growth potential.

For each company, we estimate a fair value two to three years out or more, and discount it back to arrive at a “Buy Below” price using a required return adjusted for liquidity and volatility of earnings.

We also consider traditional valuation metrics and rigorously apply qualitative filters like corporate governance and management quality.

On the sell side, we trim or exit if the stock no longer offers adequate return potential or if there’s fundamental deterioration.

Risk management is integral to our strategy. We size positions based on how easily they can be traded without market impact, and adapt dynamically to market stress when required.

To answer your question on performance and wealth creation over almost 10 years: since inception in March 2016, Sameeksha’s investment approach has delivered strong long-term results.

For example, a Rs 1 crore investment by the first investor in the lead portfolio has grown to approximately Rs 8.8 crore by 31st July 2025, delivering a TWRR of 26% before fees and expenses.

These outcomes demonstrate the potential wealth creation our strategy can deliver through disciplined execution across varied market cycles.

We note that in the first two years of our operations, as we were still building our capabilities, we carried a lot of cash in the portfolio, which affected performance in those early years.

Key takeaways:

• Consistent outperformance: 53 consecutive rolling five-year periods of delivering meaningful alpha, with a median alpha of 8–9% and top decile performance in every period.
  
• Superb performance in down markets, with downside capture of only 43% over the last five years—superior even to the most widely owned and respected mutual funds.
  
• Alpha delivered pre-Covid, during Covid, and post-Covid periods.
  
• Alpha delivered for seven consecutive years (including the current partial year).
  

Q) Which sectors are looking attractive, especially after the recent tariff measures, and which ones should investors consider reducing exposure to?

A) We continue to like individual opportunities across many sectors including IT-enabled services, select small-cap IT, digital consumption plays, jewellery and related businesses, select chemical and energy companies, and distribution.

We see froth in many high-growth sectors that have delivered strong recent growth and are expected to continue doing so, resulting in very high valuations. This includes names in defense, renewable energy, engineering, and some consumer sectors.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)