What’s next for HDFC MF investors

Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) or star fund managers bidding goodbye to an AMC, or even the MF industry, has become a commonplace occurrence in India. The recent bull market has seen many well-known fund managers, from Kenneth Andrade of IDFC to Sunil Singhania of Nippon quit their MFs to seek greener pastures in managing PMS schemes or AIFs. 

But the announcement by HDFC AMC’s CIO Prashant Jain (referred to as PJ here) that he was seeking to resign has triggered an outpouring of emotional tributes not only from the media, but also from many of his peers. Nilesh Shah of Kotak AMC has likened him to cricketing legend Don Bradman and AMCs from DSP to WhiteOak have bid him a fond farewell on social media. 

If you’re a relatively recent mutual fund investor, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Investors in HDFC funds may want to know what they should expect. 

Here’s an attempt to explain what PJ brought to the table at HDFC AMC and what could change as he hangs up his boots.

What’s next for HDFC MF investors

What he contributed

Stability and continuity

If you’re an Indian mutual fund investor, a big challenge you face is to find a fund with an unbroken 10-year record under a single fund manager. Fund manager churn picks up in bull markets, with MF managers cashing on a good 5 year or 7-year record to either switch AMCs or start PMSs or AIFs that pay a fatter fee. If you check the equity funds in operation today, you’d find that a majority have undergone a manager change within the last 5 years. This makes it difficult to gauge if the fund’s track record is owed to the current manager or his predecessor.   

With PJ-managed funds such as HDFC Balanced Advantage (earlier HDFC Prudence, which was then merged into HDFC Growth but continued to adopt the strategy of HDFC Prudence), HDFC Flexicap (HDFC Equity) and HDFC Top 100 (HDFC Top 200), there is no such dilemma. Prashant Jain has managed these funds since their inception in the mid-nineties, and their spells of both outperformance and underperformance are clearly attributable to him. In fact, PJ is the rare fund manager in the Indian MF industry who’s stayed more loyal to his investors than the AMC sponsors!

HDFC Equity and HDFC Prudence owe their beginnings to 20th Century Mutual Fund in the nineties, when PJ managed them. When the fund was acquired by Zurich AMC, PJ moved to Head of Equities. When Zurich was taken over by HDFC AMC in 2003, PJ again moved with his funds and has helmed their equities team since then. His unswerving oversight of the funds under his watch has helped investors enjoy a rare continuity of style and strategy for over two decades.  

PJ’s steadfastly GARP style of investing has helped his funds create immense wealth for Indian investors over extended periods of 25 plus years, with CAGRs that rival the Buffetts and Lynches of the world. (If you want to know more about the various investment styles fund managers follow, read this article).

Multi-cycle experience

Globally, fund managers such as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch or Stanley Druckenmiller are admired for their ability to deliver market-beating returns over multiple market cycles and not just 5 or 10 years. The track record of a fund manager across multiple cycles is critical because the styles and the sectors that ace one bull market seldom outperform in the next. Yet, long term results for MF investors depend on it staying ahead in every new cycle. 

Many Indian funds and their star managers who shone bright in the dotcom boom of 1997-2000 saw their portfolios crash and burn in the bear market that followed it. They couldn’t participate in the bull phase from 2003 to 2007 because it was led wholly by commodity, cyclical, capital goods and real estate stocks. Fund managers who aced the 2003-2008 capex driven boom suffered big reverses in the bear market that followed. Many didn’t make it back in the 2014-2022 period, because investing in financials, consumer, IT or chemical stocks was never their forte. 

Living through bear markets that wipe out 50% plus of your portfolio value and having to rebuild it from scratch when markets undergo a tectonic shift is no easy task. To portfolio managers who survive this, it offers a lot of learnings. What’s more, the Indian market was until the turn of the millennium quite susceptible to scams with both Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh teaching investors seminal lessons on the perils of following the herd. 

PJ’s 28-year stint managing Indian MFs right from the mid-80s (where he started at SBI MF) forced him to live through not just one or two, but over four such cycles in which markets boomed led by some sectors, followed by a big crash, with a new set of sectors leading a new bull phase. Each bull phase also offered him a front row seat to how scamsters operate. 

Having learnt hard lessons in the crashes of the early nineties, PJ turned adept early on in his career, at spotting over-heated sectors and operator-driven stocks. This shaped his staunchly contrarian style of investing and helped him avoid accidents by spotting market bubbles early. 

The funds managed by him were the rare ones in India to not own concentrated positions in ICE stocks when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 and to stay off real estate stocks when the capex bubble popped in 2008. This helped his funds contain losses much better than peers in the big crashes that followed. Apart from spotting overvalued sectors, PJ also proved adroit in 2002 and 2009, in loading up on the sectors that would lead the next bull market. 

The above history explains why the funds managed by PJ, which display a patchy record against their benchmarks from year to year, have still managed impressive CAGRs since inception. This interview I did with him a few years ago illustrate this investment style. 

This contrarian streak however proved to be PJ’s undoing between 2017 and 2020, when ‘quality’ stocks from sectors such as retail banks and NBFCs, consumer and IT turned market darlings. While PJ opted to move out of these sectors into the cheaply valued corporate banks, cyclicals, PSUs et al in 2017-18, the market (driven by central bank liquidity) showed no signs of either correcting or turning away from its quality obsession. This led to sharp underperformance of PJ-managed HDFC funds of both benchmark and peers in this entire period. 

In the last one year, with the easy money draining out of global markets, markets have turned more valuation-conscious, PJ’s funds such as Flexicap, Top 100 and Balanced Advantage have made a tentative comeback to beat benchmarks. But a continued winning streak is needed for these funds to restore faith in long-term performance.

Stubborn contrarian streak

If PJ’s extra-long stint in the Indian equities market gave him the ability to stay many steps ahead of market reversals, it also vested him with unusually high conviction that his stock and sector bets would work. Where other fund managers, if their contrarian positions weren’t working, would bow to market preferences and correct their positions, PJ would stick steadfastly to his bets, often ignoring the fact that this led to his funds trailing benchmarks or peers. It is this stubborn streak that was behind his most recent spell of underperformance, dragging down the 3 and 5-year records of the schemes. 

PJ was well aware of this shortcoming of his. As he told N Mahalakshmi in an interview in 2001: “There is a very thin line between being early and being wrong, and I have learnt it the hard way many times over”. PJ’s conviction however did extend to his personal investments and he ate his own cooking. Much of his personal equity allocation over the years is parked with HDFC funds managed by him. While other fund managers at HDFC AMC are less rigid adherents of the contrarian or value styles, it is quite likely that PJ’s oversight as CIO did leave its stamp on their sector and stock choices as well. 

Given that average holding periods of investors in Indian equity funds are at no more than 4-5 years, it is likely that investors who’ve entered PJ’s funds in recent years have experienced sub-par returns from their holdings that lagged peers and benchmarks. 

However, iconic fund managers often attract investors who are willing to stick with them through spells of under-performance. PJ’s position as CIO of HDFC AMC certainly endowed not just the funds he managed, but all HDFC equity schemes with a certain immunity from pullouts even when they were middling performers. That PJ’s assets under management grew steadily over the years to top Rs 1 lakh crore at the time of his exit, despite a patchy record from 2017 to 2021, go to demonstrate this cult status.

What will change

To make CIO exits more palatable, Indian AMCs often talk about their water-tight investment processes that will see their equity funds march on irrespective of manager changes. But the truth is that fund managers, especially ones like PJ, do leave an indelible stamp on the schemes they manage. What does the immediate future hold for HDFC MF investors, now that PJ has retired?

Bench strength

HDFC AMC appears to have been aware of PJ’s exit plans for over a year now and has added a strong line-up of seasoned fund managers from other AMCs. With fund managers for all the PJ managed schemes already announced last week (they are set to take over from July 29), investors won’t endure much uncertainty about the transition. The following are the changes and what they mean. 

# 1 Chirag Setalvad who has managed HDFC Midcap Opportunities and HDFC Smallcap for over 20 years and has worked closely with PJ, is set to take over as CIO- Equities of HDFC MF. Investors in Mid-cap Opportunities and Smallcap can therefore see minimal upheavals from this transition. 

# 2 Roshi Jain, a senior fund manager with 17 years of equity experience who was earlier with Franklin Templeton is set to take over as manager of HDFC Flexicap. She is a valuation-oriented growth style manager. In any case, the Rs 26,500 crore AUM of this fund will ensure that she can’t stray too far away from the large-cap favouring contrarian style of investing. It would be quite tough for a flexicap fund of this size to alter its market cap mix or chase momentum stocks, given the likely impact costs. This may ensure that the Flexicap portfolio or strategy doesn’t see dramatic churn post PJ’s exit. But it remains to be seen if she continues with PJ’s excessively contrarian and underperforming stock bets such as PFC, REC or BPCL. 

# 3 Gopal Agarwal, formerly Head of Equities at Mirae AMC, comes with a 19-year stint in Indian equities and excels at reading macros and commodity cycles and translating them into timely sector bets at the portfolio level. He’s set to manage the equity portion of HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund, which again is a Goliath with over Rs 43000 crore AUM. Given his skills at macros, this fund could adopt a more dynamic asset allocation strategy akin to other funds in this category post the shift.

It is presently managed as a fixed-allocation, aggressive equity fund. Gopal also favours a GARP style of investing rather than a contrarian or deep-value one, which could entail stock specific changes in the equity portfolio. The fund’s debt portfolio has always been conservatively managed and that could continue with Anil Bamboli.   

# 4 Rahul Baijal, earlier with Sundaram MF, comes with a 17-year stint in equities, and is credited with turning around Sundaram’s focussed large-cap fund. He is set to take over as manager of HDFC Top 100 Fund. As large cap funds such as Top 100 necessarily have to pick from a limited pool of stocks, there’s limited wiggle room to change sector weights or style, but a very staunch contrarian style may be replaced by GARP. The fund’s size (over Rs 19,900 crore) could make a concentrated strategy, Baijal’s strength, more difficult to pull off.   

None of the above managers may match the length of PJ’s 28-year tenure in the Indian markets, but they have still witnessed 2-3 market cycles. It must also be noted that none of the above managers have been rolling stones and have spent long years at their previous stints, suggesting that they could lend continuity to HDFC’s equities team.

Style diversity

There’s an old adage that other plants find it difficult to grow under a banyan tree. When a CIO of PJ’s repute and conviction leads the equity team of an AMC, his investing style and convictions about stocks and sectors do tend to overshadow what other, less seasoned managers may think (even if they are right). With PJ’s strong value and contrarian orientation, there was always the suspicion that HDFC AMC was a one-trick pony that had limited ability to ace other investing styles such as quality, momentum, quant or even passives. 

PJ’s exit, with the induction of new faces, may allow HDFC AMC to strike out and explore more passive funds and non-contrarian styles. PJ also did not believe in tactical asset allocation, cash calls or timing calls, which have preserved value and lifted long-term records for other AMCs such as ICICI Prudential. His exit may pave the way for HDFC funds to re-examine their aversion to such tactical calls. HDFC Balanced Advantage could morph from a fixed allocation aggressive equity fund to a dynamically managed fund that more closely compares to peers in the category.

Focus on short term results

With PJ loyalists no longer likely to give the fund house a long rope in underperformance, HDFC AMC and its funds are likely to face greater pressure to deliver. The exit, in 2020, of HDFC AMC’s CEO Milind Barve who gave PJ and his team a completely free hand in style and strategy choices, and the entry of Navneet Munot, earlier CIO at SBI MF, is likely to speed this transition.

Less AUM challenge

The flows that star managers attract to their schemes often carry the seeds of their downfall (Fidelity Magellan Fund managed by Peter Lynch was an example) with the funds becoming too unwieldy to manage and their size dictating their market cap preferences and investing style. PJ’s exit may not see outflows from HDFC AMC given the planned transition, but incremental flows will certainly be harder to attract, given the recent record and without the presence of the iconic manager. This may actually prove a blessing in disguise as the funds will have time to build a record under their new managers, before they attract incremental AUM. 

Note: At PrimeInvestor, our calls in Prime Funds and the MF Review Tool are based on a fund’s consistency (short-term and long-term), fund strategy and portfolio. However, as investors, you may not have the luxury of waiting for years on end for performance to pick up and nor can we demand that you do. The risk of opportunity loss is also present. Therefore we balance short-term underperformance that a fund can recover from and which may not excessively harm your returns and severe prolonged underperformance that can genuinely drag your portfolio, when giving our calls.

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5 thoughts on “What’s next for HDFC MF investors”

  1. I’ve benefitted heavily from Prashant Jain’s investment style. Regardless, this article made a lot of sense. A friend once advised, if you want to analyze a fund, analyze its fund manager. So, it is a welcome change that prime investor is covering fund managers.

  2. What I find interesting and maybe a bit strange, is that despite all PJ’s experience and returns generated (and now with the new team taking over), non of the Equity Funds have a ‘Buy’ rating from you – they all have a ‘Sell’ rating. There are only 5 funds with a ‘Buy’ rating – 2 debt, 2 index, and FoF.
    Your views on this please

    Thanks & Regards

    1. Bhavana Acharya

      As mentioned in the article, recent returns have been poor and performance is yet to pick up. So while earlier investors did gain, the more recent ones would not stand on the same ground. This apart, as we have explained in the note above at the end of the article, we consider the impact and extent of underperformance in funds when giving our calls; do give it a read. We may change calls if we see a change in performance or in the strategy of the funds; as of now, we will continue with our current calls on the funds. – thanks, Bhavana

  3. Did not hear much about PJ before his resignation but his performance over long term validates his investment style. Never saw these kind of numbers mentioned in any of HDFC marketing emails/promotions, which could have attracted more investments.

  4. Been a fan of Prashant Jain since I tentatively waded into the MF scene in mid/late 1990s. This tribute is in place.
    Truly, end of an era.

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The RA never guarantees the returns on the recommendation provided. Investor shall take note that investment/trading in stocks/Index or other securities is always subject to market risk. Past performance is never a guarantee of same future results. The RA shall not be responsible for any loss to the Investors.

This service is not directed for access or use by anyone in a country, especially the USA, Canada or the European Union countries, where such use or access is unlawful or which may subject PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The Research Service, including recommendations, research reports, updates, and other information will be accessible through the RA’s website https://primeinvestor.in only. Such recommendations and updates will not be provided over phone calls.

Fees: Our current fee structure, the term and duration of our subscription for our Research Service, can be viewed on our website: https://primeinvestor.in/prime-pricing. Eligibility for any discounts is ascertained at the time the client subscribes. Any such discount and its tenure shall be at the discretion of the RA.

Subscription and access to content services fall under the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as per the current indirect taxation policy, Government of India. Unless otherwise indicated, prices stated on our website are exclusive of applicable GST, any applicable value added tax (VAT) or other sales taxes. We are a business-to-consumer (B2C) service provider and we do not commit to provide any input tax credit on GST charged on subscription to our Research Service.

We may change the Subscription Fees and charges then in effect, or add new fees or charges which will take effect at the end of the client’s subscription period, by giving notice in advance and an opportunity to cancel renewal of the subscription.

Subscription Access & Renewal: Subscription to the Website commences immediately on the realisation of payment of the Subscription Fees. Subscriptions are set to be renewed automatically at the end of the subscription period.

Unless the client notifies us before the end of his/her subscription period, or the client cancels the auto-renewal mandate within the period specified by law, that the client does not wish to renew his/her subscription, the client’s subscription will renew for the period defined by the client’s subscription plan. We will charge the subscription using the same payment method that you previously used.

Although the client may notify to us his/her intention to his/her subscription, such notice will only take effect at the end of his/her then current subscription period, and he/she will not receive a refund other than as set out under Clause 8 in these Terms.

The client may notify us of his/her wish to cancel his/her subscription by sending an email to [email protected]. The client must provide at least 5 business days advance notice for this to be implemented.

Refunds: There can be no cancellation and refund of subscription fee paid once the subscription is active, other than as stated in Clause 8 of these Terms. If the client is entitled to a refund as specified under Clause 8 of these Terms, the RA will credit that refund to the card or other payment method used by the client to submit payment, unless it has expired - in which case the RA will contact the client to proceed with the refund. If we do issue a refund or credit due to circumstances outside the obligations specified under Clause 8, we are under no obligation to issue the same or a similar refund in the future.

General disclaimers: The recommendations made herein in the Research Services are expression of views and/or opinions and should not be deemed or construed to be advice for the purpose of purchase or sale of any security, nor a solicitation or offering on any investment/ trading opportunity on behalf of the company, AMC, insurance company, or issuer of security referred to herein.

The content and research reports generated by the RA does not constitute or is not intended to constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation to an offer to buy or sell financial products, units or securities.

The information/ opinion/ views mentioned in research reports or by the RA are not meant to serve as a professional guide to the client or recipients of this Report. The research report, recommendation, or any other content published by the RA do not assure or guarantee any minimum or fixed returns to the client or recipients of the reports/ recommendations/ content.

Use of this information is at the client’s own risk. The client must make his/ her own investment decisions based on his/her specific investment objective and financial position and using such independent advisors as he/she believes necessary. The services rendered by the RA are on a best-effort basis. All information in the content or research report of the RA is provided on an as is basis. Information is believed to be reliable but the RA does not warrant its completeness or accuracy and expressly disclaim all warranties and conditions of any kind, whether express or implied.

While due care has been taken to ensure that the disclosures, information, and opinions given are fair and reasonable, PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd and/or none of its officers, directors, partners, employees, agents, subsidiaries, affiliates or business associates shall be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, including lost profits arising in any way whatsoever from the information/ opinions/ views contained in the research report and recommendations that form part of the Research Service, and/or mails, social media or notifications issued by PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd or any other agency appointed/authorised by PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt Ltd. Returns and performance figures mentioned in the research report represent past performance and should not be constituted to be future returns or guaranteed returns.

Any agreements, transactions or other arrangements made between the client and any third party named on (or linked to from) the Website are at your own responsibility and entered into at your own risk. Any information that you receive via the Website, whether or not it is classified as “real time”, may have stopped being current by the time it reaches you. Market price information may be rounded up/down and therefore may not be entirely accurate.

The purpose of these disclosures is to provide essential information about the Research Services in a manner to assist and enable the prospective client/client in making an informed decision for engaging in Research Services before onboarding.

History, present business and background: PrimeInvestor Financial Research Private Limited is registered with SEBI as Research Analyst with registration no. INH200008653. The Research Analyst got its registration on August 19, 2021 and is engaged in offering research and recommendation services.

Disciplinary history: There are no pending material litigations or legal proceedings against the Research Analyst. As on date, no penalties / directions have been issued by SEBI under the SEBI Act or Regulations made thereunder against the Research Analyst relating to Research Analyst services.

Details of the RA's associates: No associates.

Usage of Website Content: This Website is controlled and operated by the RA. All material, including research reports, recommendations, portfolios, ratings, lists of financial products, illustrations, statements, opinions, views, photographs, products, images, artwork, designs, text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio and video clips and software (collectively, “Content”) are protected by copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights that are owned and controlled by the RA or by other parties that have licensed their material to us.

Except where otherwise agreed in writing with the RA, material on the Website is solely for the client’s personal, non-commercial use. Except as provided below, the client must not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit or distribute such material in any way, including by e-mail or other electronic means and whether directly or indirectly and the client must not assist any other person to do so.

Without the prior written consent of the RA, modification of the materials, use of the materials on any other web site or networked computer environment or use of the materials for any purpose other than personal, non-commercial use is a violation of the copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights, and is prohibited. Any use for which the client receives any remuneration, whether in money or otherwise, is a commercial use for the purposes of these Terms.

The client may occasionally distribute a copy of a research report, or a portion of the same, from the Website in non-electronic form to a few individuals without charge, provided the client includes all copyright and other proprietary rights notices in the same form in which the notices appear, original source attribution, and the phrase “Used with permission from PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt. Ltd.”

While the client may occasionally download and store research reports or information from the Website for his/her personal use, he/she may not otherwise provide others with access to the same. The foregoing does not apply to any sharing functionality we provide through the Website that expressly allows the client to share Content or links to Content with others. In addition, the client may not use Content he/she has downloaded for personal use to develop or operate an automated trading system or for data or text mining.

The client agrees not to rearrange or modify the Content available through the Website. The client agrees not to display, post, frame, or scrape the Content for use on another website, app, blog, product or service, except as otherwise expressly permitted by these Terms. You agree not to create any derivative work based on or containing the research products and Content. The framing or scraping of or in-line linking to the Services or any Content contained thereon and/or the use of webcrawler, spidering or other automated means to access, copy, index, process and/or store any Content made available on or through the Services other than as expressly authorized by us is prohibited.

The client further agrees to abide by exclusionary protocols (e.g., Robots.txt, Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), etc.) that may be used in connection with the Research Services. The client may not access parts of the Research Services to which he/she is not authorized, or attempt to circumvent any restrictions imposed on your use or access of the Services.

As a general rule, the client may not use the Content, including without limitation, any Content made available through one of our RSS Feeds, in any commercial product or service, without our express written consent.

The client may not create apps, extensions, or other products and services that use our Content without our permission. The client may not aggregate or otherwise use our Content in a manner that could reasonably serve as a substitute for a subscription to the Website.

The client may not access or view the Services with the use of any scripts, extensions, or programs that alter the way the Services are displayed, rendered, or transmitted to you without our written consent.

The client agrees not to use the Services for any unlawful purpose. We reserve the right to terminate or restrict the client's access to the Website if, in our opinion, the client's use of the Services may violate any laws, regulations or rulings, infringe upon another person's rights or violate these Terms.

Prohibited content: The Website includes comments sections, blogs and other interactive features that allow interaction among clients and between clients and the RA. We call the information posted by or contributed by users “Contributed Content.” In the course of availing of the Research Services or uploading any post or comment on the Website, the client shall not post any Contributed Content that (i) contains nude, semi-nude, sexually suggestive photos, (ii) tends or is likely to abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other users of the Website and/or Research Services, (iii) is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely to use or have access to the Website and/or Services, or (iv) otherwise violates, is prohibited or restricted by applicable law, rule or regulation, is offensive or illegal or violates the rights of, harms or threatens the safety of other users of the Website and/or Services (collectively “Prohibited Content”).

We reserve the right to cease to provide the client with the Research Services or access to the Website, or terminate your subscription, with immediate effect and without notice and liability, for violating these Terms, applicable law, rules or regulations and reserves the right to remove Prohibited Content which is in violation of these Terms, or is otherwise abusive, illegal or disruptive. The determination of whether any content constitutes Prohibited Content, violates these Terms, or is otherwise abusive illegal or disruptive, is subject to the sole determination of the Firm.

Changes to Research Services: We are constantly endeavouring to improve the quality of Research Services provided to our clients. Due to this, the form and nature of the Research Services provided may change from time to time without any prior notice to the client. We reserve the right to introduce and initiate new features, functionalities, components to the Website and/or Research Services and/or change, alter, modify, or discontinue existing ones without any prior notice to the client.

Warranty and liability disclaimer: The Website, Research Services, and all the materials and services, included on or otherwise made available to the client through this Website is provided by the RA on an “as is” and “as available” basis without any representation or warranties, express or implied except otherwise specified in writing. Without prejudice to the foregoing paragraph, the RA does not warrant that:

  • This Website and/or Research Services will be constantly available, or available at all;
  • The information on this Website or provided through the Research Services is complete, true, accurate or not misleading; or
  • The quality of any products, services, information, or other material that you obtain through the Website or Services will meet your expectations.

The RA, to the fullest extent permitted by law, disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including the warranty of merchantability, fitness for particular purpose and non-infringement. The RA makes no warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the Website, Research Services, Content, Contributed Content, Services, software, text, graphics and links.

The RA does not warrant that this Website, Research Services, information, content, materials, or any other material included on or otherwise made available to you through this Website, their servers, or electronic communication sent by the RA are free of viruses or other harmful components.

Nothing on this Website constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind.

Indemnification: The client:

  1. Represents, warrants and covenants that no materials of any kind provided by him/her will:
    1. Violate, plagiarise, or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights; or
    2. Contain libellous, Prohibited Content or other unlawful material;
  2. Hereby agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the RA and all of the RA’s officers, directors, owners, agents, customers/clients, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all liability and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable advocate’s fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of any breach by the client of these Terms or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants. The client shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defence of any such claim. The RA reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by the client.

Applicable law: This Website, including the Content and Contributed Content and information contained herein, and the provision of Research Services shall be governed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, laws of the Republic of India and the courts of Chennai, India which shall retain exclusive jurisdiction to entertain any proceedings in relation to any disputes arising out of the same. As such, the laws of India shall govern any transaction completed using this Website.

Information gathered and tracked: Information submitted or collected on the Website or pursuant to the use of the Services is stored in a database. Specifically, we store the username, name, e-mail address, contact number, as submitted or collected on our Website or through the provision of the Research Services. We may use such information to send out occasional promotional materials, including alerts on new Services available, or other promotional and marketing material relating to our clients and customers.

In accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000, the name and the details of the Grievance Officer at PrimeInvestor is provided below:

Mr. Srikanth Meenakshi
PrimeInvestor Financial Research Pvt. Ltd., Registered office: 659, 4th Avenue, D-Sector, Anna Nagar Western Extension, Chennai 600 101.
Email: [email protected]

11. Mandatory notice:

Clients shall be requested to go through Do’s and Don’ts while dealing with RA as specified in SEBI master circular no. SEBI/HO/MIRSD-POD-1/P/CIR/2024/49 dated May 21, 2024 or as may be specified by SEBI from time to time.

12. Optional Centralised Fee Collection Mechanism:

SEBI has operationalized a centralized fee collection mechanism for IA and RA. Under this mechanism, clients shall pay fees to IAs/RAs through a designated platform/portal administered by a recognized Administration and Supervision body. This is an optional mechanism for the registered entities. At this time, PrimeInvestor has opted out of this fee collection mechanism. Therefore, all subscription payments for the Research Services will be through the modes as specified in Clause 5 of these Terms.

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