By Danish Reyaz,
Mr. Waqar Naqvi is the CEO of Taurus AMC. He is an ICWA from the 1991 batch, and an MBA specialized in Finance & Marketing. He has more than 20 years of experience in investment, finance and mutual fund industry. Having a rich exposure in marketing financial products and services and knowledge of the diverse Indian and international markets, he has been actively involved in developing speciality products in the MF space. He is also a member of Committee on Registration of AMFI Certified Distributors. Prior to his appointment as CEO of Taurus AMC, Mr. Naqvi was the Business Head of Portfolio Management Services & Offshore Business for Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co. Ltd.Mr. Waqr Naqvi has also worked with Thermax, Apple Finance, GE Capital Transportation and Escorts Finance across treasury, asset finance and asset management functions. He Chats with Danish Reyaz and express their views and current scenario of Market.
Q. What is the story behind the success of your journey?
I am not sure whether we should call it success already. This is a long and challenging journey trying to turn around a mutual fund in times where regulatory and economic environment is constantly evolving and changing. Whatever distance we have traveled on this journey is due to the efforts of a seasoned, experienced and committed team we put in place in the past three years and of ‘course due to god’s help.
Q. What major steps have you taken for the success of Taurus Mutual Fund as its CEO?
In this journey till now, apart from putting in place a very good team, we have stuck at excelling at the basis. We have not tried to be adventurous. We believe financial service is a business of being conservative in the interests of the investors/stake holders. Performance is paramount for MF”s and by the grace of god we have a good performance on equity as well as the debt side of the business with three of our equity funds rated 4star/5star by value research or a high CRP by crisil. Similarly one of our fixed income funds is rated 5 star by value research and another fixed income fund is rated CRP 2 by crisil.
Mr. Waqar Naqvi
Q. Taurus has launched first Sharia Compliant ethical Fund in 2008, it is one among the best performing Taurus MF as I studied all Taurus Mutual funds performances. What do you think about ethical (sharia) market in India and its future?
We launched the country’s first sharia complaint fund in 2009 April. By god’s grace the fund has done extremely well and its returns are better that almost all midcaps in the country and it has turned out a very good performance. Its size has grown considerably and as awareness about this fund is increasing it is gathering more money. This fund (taurus ethical fund) should continue doing well since it buys into companies which either do not have any outflow towards interest payment or have a negligible outflow. It also does not buy shares of banks (and a few other sectors like alcohol, tobacco, adult entertainment, etc) and given the rising interest rate scenario where banks may not do too well since their credit off take may get impacted and also given the fact that in a rising interest rate scenario the companies which do not have to pay interest will not get impacted the future looks bright for this fund.
Q. SEBI is issuing many customer friendly rules regarding investment in Mutual fund; what do you think from business point of view? How it will be beneficial for a Mutual Fund Company?
More or less SEBI has focused on improving things for the investors. Whether it was banning the entry load and a few other measures or whether it has the latest announcement now that by October 1, 2011, all investors should be given an option to hold the units of mfs in demat form. The last one if investors choose to hold the units in the demat mode will reduce the per transaction cost for the mfs as well.
Q. Is it true that Black money launders are routing their money into Stock exchanges or Mutual Funds?
I do not see how it will be possible since mfs insist on taking money only through a bank account and do not accept cash at all. Also the MF requirements in terms of know your customer are pretty stringent and mfs ask for pan card copy and few other documents. We have not come across any instance because of which we could say that black money is coming into mfs through investors.
Q. How SEBI can stop wrong doers and keep them away from Stock markets?
SEBI is already doing enough and most of those measures are deterring wrong doers.
Q. What do you think about the stability of Stock Market in coming 2-5 years?
The fundamentals of India’s growth story and its consumption story remain intact. Hence over 2 to 5 years the Indian equity markets should do well. It is in the immediate term where interest rates are rising and inflation is also rising that corporate growth may suffer to an extent keeping the share prices in check. Once the investors are clear that the interest rates have peaked, then chances are bright that the Indian stock markets will start looking up again. Investors should use the current equity market stage to keep investing in stages to reap the rewards over the next 2 to 5 years..
Q. Is it true, that FIIs play major role in ups and down of Stock Market?
This is true to an extent, but the Indian institutions are slowly coming of age. LIC has been a solid giant. Money with the mfs has now increased. Domestic insurance companies are also growing in size. As more and more retain investors start participating in the in Indian stock markets the influence of fiis should go on reducing.
Q. How do you look IRDA policy about the ULIPs (issued only this year); will it be beneficial for Mutual Fund companies?
Mfs should be looked upon as investment vehicles and insurance companies to provide insurance. I have no more comments on this matter.
(Danish Reyaz is a Mumbai based Journalist associated with The Sunday Indian, a weekly magazine)