Cohesion brings Reliance India fund to DFM market

Last year the firm unveiled the Cohesion India Best Ideas vehicle, managed by Reliance Capital Asset Management, but distributed in the UK by Cohesion.

The product, constructed under the stewardship of Reliance chief investment strategist Madhu Kela and chief investment officer for equity, Sunil Singhania, aimed to bring together the top opportunities from the emerging market giant.

The product, however, was tailored to a high net worth audience, with a new fund now launching for the DFM world.

At the time the original fund was unveiled, Cohesion chief executive Spike Hughes cited both the potential of benefiting from Indian economic growth as well as the importance of Reliance’s track record in this area.

In a note to potential investors, Mr Hughes said: “Reliance have arguably unrivalled insight and early identification of changing trends, often long before any anlyst or stockbroker in London or New York reading research notes.”

Mr Hughes added that he wanted to offer a fund that was “in line with the attributes of Reliance’s highly acclaimed domestic mutual funds”.

“However, this highly concentrated portfolio of Indian equities built for Cohesion will only represent some of Reliance’s very best ideas in this dynamic market that is now firmly on the world’s radar screen,” he said.

He noted that India had “potentially unlimited scope to grow in an economy of 1.2 billion possible customers”, with the country set to generate some $5trn of growth over the next decade.

“Reliance just need to pick some of the best bits,” he added.

“Recent events in India including the 2014 landslide election victory [by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narendra Modi], in our opinion, only serve to accelerate the India opportunity with many of the world’s leaders and most successful businesses now even keener to engage.”