In this second instalment of our Inside the House series, we take a look at yet another new AMC with veteran backing: Helios Mutual Fund. We will cover their history, investment framework, fund lineup, portfolios, and more.
Pedigree
Helios Capital Asset Management (India) Pvt. Ltd., the asset management company of the Helios group, was incorporated in May 2021. Helios Mutual Fund was set up in August 2023. The sponsor of Helios Mutual Fund is Helios Capital Management Pte. Ltd., Singapore. Helios has been running long-short and long-only India-based PMS and AIF strategies.
Samir Arora is the founder and Group CIO of Helios Capital. The firm was founded in 2005. Before starting Helios Capital, Samir Arora worked with Allianz Capital Management for more than 12 years.
Dinshaw Irani is the MD & CEO of Helios Capital India. He has been associated with the Helios group since 2005. Before joining Helios, Dinshaw also worked with Allianz Capital.
Alok Bahl is the CIO of Helios Capital India. He joined the Helios group in 2005, at the time of the group’s inception, and moved to Helios Capital India in April 2023.
Investment Management
Helios has launched 7 funds so far. CIO Alok Bahl effectively manages all these funds – which interestingly include an overnight fund! All equity funds have an additional fund manager, Pratik Singh. Utsav Modi is the debt fund manager; he is part of the fund management team for the Overnight Fund and the Balanced Advantage Fund.
Helios calls its stock selection process the Elimination Investing framework. The core idea is that it is easier to eliminate bad stocks than to find good ones. Under this framework, the research team starts with a broad index and eliminates stocks based on eight specific criteria. These include companies prone to disruption, industries going through a difficult phase, companies with the government as a major client, very expensive valuations, and so on.
Portfolio construction based on the Elimination framework: Once the framework is applied, the stock list reduces to around 100. These stocks are further analyzed and categorized into two groups: Regular stocks and Discovery stocks. The split between regular stocks and discovery stocks is kept at 50:50.
- Regular stocks are stable companies where the fund house has high confidence of generating reasonable returns. These are given a 4% initial allocation.
- Discovery stocks carry higher risk, where the fund house maintains reasonable confidence of high returns. These are given a 2% initial allocation.
Helios also prefers running a large portfolio of about 50 stocks. The reason is that they prefer to have a replicable strategy from the outset. A concentrated portfolio may be hard to manage once the fund AUM climbs.
However, on observing Helios Mutual Fund portfolios, this framework is not followed to the letter in terms of stock weights and number. Portfolios have stocks with an allocation greater than 4% at inception itself. This may be due to higher conviction in some stocks especially given the market over the past year, or it may be that weights would be reduced as AUM grows. This remains to be seen.
In terms of number of stocks held also, while Helios Flexicap and Helios Midcap funds started with 47 and 49 stocks respectively, the Large & Midcap fund started with a 36-stock portfolio. The current number of stocks in the Flexicap, Midcap, and Large & Midcap funds stands at 69, 77, and 55 respectively.
Regarding their style of portfolio management, Helios has been clear that they do not want to stick to any particular style (such as growth or value). According to Helios, it is the job of fund managers to identify which style suits a particular environment and make changes as required. They are also not interested in taking large cash calls under any market conditions. This is visible in the equity fund portfolios, where cash levels have remained moderate at 5% or below.
Fund Offerings
Helios began its offerings with the launch of an Overnight Fund in October 2023. A month later, its flagship Helios Flexicap Fund was launched. The next launch was the much-popular hybrid category, the Balanced Advantage Fund, in March 2024. Later, Helios launched other major equity categories: the Large & Midcap Fund (October 2024), the Midcap Fund (March 2025), and the latest, the Smallcap Fund (November 2025). So far, the AMC has launched only one sectoral/thematic fund: a Financial Services Fund in June 2024.
As of now, Helios hasn’t launched any other debt funds, and the total number of funds remains at a modest seven. On the asset side, the bulk of the AMC’s AUM sits in its flagship Flexicap Fund, at close to Rs.6,000 crore. The rest of the funds have AUMs ranging from Rs.200 Cr to Rs.1,200 crore, a reasonable size given that the AMC is a new one albeit with a strong pedigree.
Portfolio Trends
Looking at the portfolios, a few trends are visible.
Sector allocations: Sector preferences appear to be similar across the funds. This is expected, given its framework of eliminating stocks first and then arriving at a shortlist. In the diversified portfolios of the Flexicap and Large & Midcap funds, Helios is overweight on industrials and energy & utilities, while being slightly underweight on IT. In the midcap space, as seen from the Midcap Fund portfolio, the AMC is overweight on financials and consumer discretionary and underweight on IT, similar to its diversified portfolios. Portfolio turnover has been reasonable at 33% for the Flexicap Fund and 24% for the Large & Midcap Fund; broadly in line with industry norms.
Marketcap preferences: The Flexicap Fund maintained an allocation of around 53% large cap, 26% mid cap, and 16% small cap over the past year. This is a shade more aggressive than the category as a whole; the average midcap allocation for the flexi cap category is about 19% while the largecap averages at 58%.
The Helios Large & Midcap Fund remained true to its label, with the entire allocation going to large- and mid-cap stocks at 52% and 42% respectively over the past year. It had just under 2% in small caps, compared to the category average small-cap allocation of around 11%.
The Helios Midcap Fund, however, appears more aggressive. Its midcap allocation holds at the regulatory minimum of 65%, which is slightly below the category average of 68%. But the average small-cap allocation has been 29% since launch and much higher than the 15% of its peer average. This could be due to the steep correction in the smallcap space throwing up more opportunities; the midcap fund launched just after the initial sharp sell-off last year. Midap funds also played it safer with a 12% largecap allocation; Helios Midcap has just 2% in largecaps.
Valuation trends: In the Flexicap Fund, portfolio valuations remain in line with the benchmark index Nifty 500. In the Midcap Fund, a preference for growth stocks is visible when compared with the Nifty Midcap 150 Index. The Large & Midcap Fund falls in between, with a growth tilt largely in the mid-cap portion of the portfolio.
Overall, despite being managed by the same fund management team and likely following the same stock-selection process, Helios has maintained distinct portfolios across its equity fund offerings.
In the only hybrid fund from the house, the Helios Balanced Advantage Fund, the AMC has been active in managing net equity allocation. The average net equity allocation for the past year stood at 65%. It was 61% in November 2024, dropped to a low of 47% in February, and stands near its highest level at 72% in December 2025. Given market conditions over the past year, the fund appears to have largely got its equity allocation calls right.
Performance
Since most Helios funds have a very short history, we have evaluated only two funds: the Flexicap Fund and the Balanced Advantage Fund. The performance below is based on one-year rolling returns. Category averages and benchmark returns (in the case of the Flexicap Fund) have been considered from the respective launch dates of the Helios funds. All returns are for the direct plan, growth option.
The Helios Flexicap Fund has delivered good performance in its short history, beating both the category and the index on minimum, maximum, and average returns. Its volatility, as measured by standard deviation, has been slightly higher than the category average.
The Helios Balanced Advantage Fund has been more conservative than the category since inception. While this has resulted in lower volatility, as seen from standard deviation, and slightly better minimum returns compared to the category, its average and maximum returns have been lower. Since the fund has only recently increased its equity allocation, it remains to be seen how its comparative performance evolves.
Costs
Helios funds’ expense ratios are around the category averages, with a notable exception in the Flexicap Fund, which is 30 bps lower.
- Flexicap: 0.45% vs category 0.75%
- Midcap: 0.57% vs 0.77%
- Large & Midcap: 0.72% vs 0.71%
- Balanced Advantage: 0.9% vs 0.69%
- Overnight Fund: 0.14% vs 0.08%
Helios has had a good start, with its flagship flexicap fund featuring among the top performers. The AMC is also clearly focused on equity schemes, which is to be expected given the pedigree of its sponsor. The only debt scheme it has launched is an overnight fund, which may primarily be for facilitating systematic transactions into its equity funds. We do not have a rating for any Helios fund at this point, as all of them are recently launched. Once these funds complete a three-year track record, we will begin including them in our ratings and publishing our calls.
2 thoughts on “Inside the House: Helios AMC”
You are welcome, Sir!
Thanks for the informative write up!