Kotak Alternate Asset Managers to be the largest asset manager in India.

Billionaire banker Uday Kotak’s eponymous group will combine its alternate fund management and investment advisory businesses into an entity with $18 billion under management, it said on Thursday.

The entity, to be named Kotak Alternate Asset Managers (KAAM), will include $8.9 billion in alternate investment funds and the advisory business with $9.1 billion under management.

“This makes us the largest asset manager in India by a yard,” Srini Sriniwasan, managing director of the newly-created entity, said.

The entity is not looking to raise any external funds as it is adequately capitalised, but sees growth opportunities in both the alternative investment and advisory businesses, Sriniwasan said.

“The core of our proposition is asset selection, asset allocation and asset management. To reflect this, we have rechristened it as Kotak Alternate Asset Managers. Our customers, both domestic and global, want superior investment knowledge and execution. The name change reflects our strategy to harness the combined power of Rs 1.47 trillion capital and direct it to the best opportunities available in India…,” he added.

KAAM currently has its largest investment funds in the real estate sector, with $3.4 billion in assets, followed by special situation funds which will hold a combined $2.6 billion and invest in stressed firms.

It also has $100 million private credit fund, a segment in which local and global competition is heating up.

“As India matures, investment surpluses will grow,” said Sriniwasan. There will be new sets of opportunities that will come in.” The company may consider launching funds for segments like logisitics, warehousing and ‘permanent capital vehicles’ such as real estate investment trusts, he added.

The advisory business, meanwhile, will capitalise on India’s growing affluent investor base, which is looking for investment options beyond traditional ones, said Lakshmi Iyer, head of the company’s investment and strategy. “More and more investors are gravitating towards the advisory mode of managing their wealth rather than the traditional mode of being managed,” she said. “This is where, we as a firm, see a significant opportunity.”

https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/banking-finance/kotak-combines-alternate-funds-advisory-into-18-billion-unit/3198826/