Date: 04th Aug 2022 | Publication: Ausbiz
Clean and capitalised to fund India’s next wave of growth
Following the success of the Investing in India 101 segment with Mugunthan Siva of India Avenue Investment Management last month, we were glad to have him back on the global view to discuss opportunities emerging from the nation’s burgeoning financial sector. With 1.4 billion predominantly young people who have widespread access to mobile internet and smart phones, there’s huge potential given the prospects for wealth and incomes in the future. But is that enough in isolation to put your hard-earned capital to work? Mugunthan provides a quick history lesson about trends seen since the end of the GFC, looking at the proportion of the population who are banked, the evolution in bad debt provisioning following a lending boom that occurred around a decade ago, the funding mix for banks, the regulatory environment, along with the big players in the space. He discusses why now is the time to start looking at commercial banks with the dominance of state-backed institutions and private lenders staring to weaken. Mugunthan explains why he is holding ICICI Bank, among others, within the fund portfolio.
India Avenue is a boutique investment management firm providing investment solutions that allow our clients to benefit from India’s remarkable growth story.
OUR BUSINESS
2005
The journey towards the “birth” of India Avenue originated in 2005, when ING Investment Management started a business in India as a separate division, utilising a practiced multi-manager philosophy in markets like Australia, and exported it to India. Three of our founders, Mugunthan Siva, Rajeev Thakkar and Sajjan Raut Desai worked together for INGIM (India), building investment strategies and structures, under this philosophy and applying them to Indian capital markets
2011
In 2011 our founders started discussing the possibility of building an investment firm with a capability to provide a focus on India as an stand-alone investment jurisdiction for foreign investors. The founders identified Australia and New Zealand as nascent markets for investing in regional locations, with the potential to accelerate given education and insights which the firm could provide.
2015
By 2015 the group of founders decided to work full-time on this concept to bring it to life. They did this by leaving their existing employment, thus exercising high conviction in the investment region of India as a long-term structural story for investors in Australia and New Zealand. Thus, the firm India Avenue Investment Management was registered and came to life in 2015 in Sydney, Australia.
2016
After building our business for a period of 12 months, our first fund, The India Avenue Equity Fund was launched on 6th September 2016, with strong service provider partners like Equity Trustees (RE), Mainstream (Fund Administrator), KPMG (Fund Auditor) and BNP India (Custodian).
NOW
India Avenue is now a boutique investment business firm, with clients spread across family offices, high net worth individuals, wealth advisers and financial planning firms. Our firm has focused on education and knowledge as a driver of investment behaviour and have taken a long-term approach towards Australian and New Zealand investors contemplating an allocation to India’s growth as part of their portfolios. Our firm has assets in excess of A$50m and the India Avenue Equity Fund is rated “Recommended”* by Lonsec and is available on multiple investment platforms across Australia and New Zealand.