HEAD-TO-HEAD: Fidelity vs First State

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While Amit Goel is listed as fund manager of the Fidelity fund since April 2016, key decisions are made by Sandeep Kothari, an experienced Mumbai-based advisor. He used to lead Fidelity’s onshore Indian equity team before the firm exited the domestic business in 2012. He’s supported by seven analysts in Mumbai, one in Shanghai and one in Singapore.

Kothari has two decades of investing experience. “His insights are amongst the most impressive we have come across in this sector, and he has equally shown to be humble when faced with mistakes,” according to Laidlaw’s assessment.

“Fidelity has one of the largest investment teams in Asia, around 50 investment specialists on the analytical side covering the region,” Laidlaw added.

Singapore-based Vinay Agarwal has been the lead manager of the First State fund since August 2012. He has 15 years of investment experience and is supported by a team at First State Stewart Asia.

“Agarwal’s depth of analysis is impressive not only when looking at the major macro issues that drive the Indian economy, but especially when getting down to the nitty gritty at the stock level,” according to Laidlaw.

While Laidlaw called both “very impressive managers”, he noted differences in style that tie in with the respective funds’ objectives.

“[At First State] it’s all about capital preservation, the absolute-return mindset. [Agarwal] would be willing to potentially leave some returns on the table, get out of something a little bit early”, in order to mitigate risks.

“They will never say ‘the index was down 10% but we were only down 3% so we’ve actually done a good job’. For them it’s still a loss of clients’ money.”

First State’s team has a “collegiate” character, according to Laidlaw, with 15-20 members and a flat structure. “They are very much generalists, they don’t tend to get pigeonholed as sector specialists as such, but they are all heavily involved. Everyone comes up with ideas, everyone questions ideas.”

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