Goldman Sachs India Equity Portfolio's objective is to capture the growth potential of the Indian economy. It is focused on investing in sound businesses of all sizes. Company meetings are a crucial part of the process, and the team's ability to meet companies on the ground in India differentiates it from many in its peer group.
Our opinion
This is an all-weather India fund with a well-resourced and experienced team, based on the ground in India and Singapore. It has a solid investment process and we particularly like the many company meetings the team undertake. The manager has a very good and consistent track record. With the resources available to him there is no reason why he should not continue to outperform.
Company description
Established in 1988, Goldman Sachs Asset Management has more than 2,000 professionals in over 30 offices worldwide. Awarded the Elite Equities Provider rating in 2017, 2018 and 2019, it offers investment products in fixed income, equities, commodities and real estate.
Fund manager
Hiren Dasani began managing the Goldman Sachs India Equity Portfolio in June 2013. Based in Singapore, he joined the company in 2007 and is also co-head of the emerging markets equity team. Hiren achieved a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Baroda in 1997, before working in fixed income at Prudential ICICI and then as a research analyst at SSKI Securities.
Like the population, investment opportunities in India are still young and growing.
Hiren DasaniFund manager
Investment process
The team start by evaluating the attractiveness of a company's industry. Highly competitive, capital-intensive industries with low returns may be ignored entirely. The team will then focus on the valuation of a business. Real cash flows are prioritised over paper profits and Hiren only invests where he sees the opportunity for a substantial gain. The team never says no to a meeting as it can always learn something about the industry, even if it has no intention of investing.
Risk
Goldman Sachs India Equity Portfolio is well diversified, with between 70 and 90 holdings to reduce stock-specific risk. This is a single country fund with a bias towards medium and smaller companies, so it is heavily dependent on the Indian economy and it will be volatile as a result. Investors should also be aware of the currency risk.
The information, data, analyses, and opinions contained herein (1) include the proprietary information of FundCalibre, (2) may not be copied or redistributed without prior permission, (3) do not constitute investment advice offered by FundCalibre, (4) are provided solely for informational purposes and therefore are not an offer to buy or sell a fund, and (5) are not warranted to be correct, complete, or accurate. FundCalibre shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from, or related to, this information, data, analyses, or opinions or their use. The Elite Fund rating is subjective in nature and reflects FundCalibre’s current expectations of future events/behaviour as they relate to a particular fund. Because such events/behaviour may turn out to be different than expected, FundCalibre does not guarantee that a fund will perform in line with its FundCalibre benchmark. Likewise, the Elite Fund rating should not be seen as any sort of guarantee or assessment of the creditworthiness of a fund nor of its underlying securities and should not be used as the sole basis for making any investment decision. FundCalibre disclaims any responsibility for trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from any use of the Elite Fund rating. All performance data, as well as fund size, OCF, AMC, annual income (historic), share price discount or premium, is sourced directly from FE Analytics, and will change periodically.