Pankaj Tibrewal wakes up 6.30 am every day. His day typically begins with meditation which he practices religiously almost every day. He reaches his office, which is in Mumbai’s Kalina area, by 8.30 am.
Pankaj graduated from St. Xavier's College in Kolkata and went to pursue a Master's degree in Finance from Manchester University. His first job was at Principal Mutual Fund where he joined as a fixed income analyst in 2003. He then graduated to become a fund manager. He has managed Principal Emerging Bluechip, Principal Tax Saver, Principal MIP, among other schemes. Pankaj has been with Kotak AMC since 2010.
His day starts with a meeting with his colleagues at 9 am which usually lasts for 60 minutes. In this meeting, he and his colleagues (who include other fund managers and analysts) share their learnings and ideas with each other.
After this meeting, Pankaj usually heads out of his office to meet the senior management of his investee companies. Pankaj is the fund manager of Kotak Midcap, Kotak Emerging Equity and Kotak Monthly Income Plan. “Since I invest in small and mid-sized companies which involves bottom up stocking picking, I need to spend more time visiting companies/factories to understand the nuances of companies. The entire team does this religiously,” says Pankaj.
As a fund manager, he is expected to be on top of all developments. On an everyday basis, he has to filter a deluge of information which involves filtering 200-300 emails every day. “We are bombarded with information through media. Over the years you learn how to filter information and cut the noise,” says Pankaj. He says that his meditation, which he practices every day, helps him get the stability and calmness required to process this information overdose.
A fund manager is expected to be well-versed with many economic or finance related such as forex, commodity, fixed income and various developments happening in the international markets. In order to get a grip on such varied topics, Pankaj speaks to the best minds in the industry. “I interact with my debt fund managers to stay updated on the fixed income market. To get updated on the forex markets, I speak to treasury heads of banks and other global think tanks to get an overview of various issues,” says Pankaj.
Pankaj believes that getting access to the top minds in the industry is the best part of his job. He considers this to be one of the perks of his job.
But his high profile job comes with its own set of challenges. Considering the nature of his job, he has to be always on his toes, which means his work timings are not fixed. “Sometimes we are in office till 11 pm to meet investors coming from abroad and sometimes I reach home before 7 pm, but those days are rare. My work does not stop at 3.30 pm when the markets shut,” he laughs.
Managing hundreds of crore of investor money means he is under the watchful eye of all stakeholders. Not only he has to beat his funds benchmark, he also has to compete with the other schemes managed by his peers which fall in the same category. “It is a basic hygiene factor. You have to outperform your benchmark. If you fail to do so, investors have an option to invest in passive funds. I don’t try to be number one all the time. If you try to be at the top always you will take more risk and the chances of failure are high,” observes Pankaj.
Pankaj says that to be good at his job, his thought process has to be very clear. “I can’t be rigid but at the same time I can’t be very flexible and keep changing my views over short intervals. You have to be nimble-footed. Sometimes, you have to play the devil’s advocate by taking feedback on your thought process from your colleagues,” says Pankaj.
Fund management is not merely about investing in companies. His responsibilities are broad based. He devotes 80% of his time in investment management (which includes meeting companies, researching on companies, etc.) and the remaining 20% in helping other functions of the AMC (helping sales team, meeting distributors and investors and so on). One of his responsibilities includes interacting with distributors who get investors to invest in his schemes. Pankaj observes that distributors have become more professional now. “Earlier, distributors only judged you by looking at absolute returns. Now, the level of maturity has increased. Now they (distributors) also look at what risk the fund is taking to generate such returns. Distributors don’t want me to be a top performer but at the same time they don’t expect me to be at the bottom. You can be a rock star for one year but that doesn’t mean your fund will be promoted by all distributors,” says Pankaj.
Pankaj says that staying motivated and being passionate is essential to excel at his work. He looks up to Anthony Bolton, UK’s well-known fund manager of Fidelity Special Situations Fund. “I like Anthony’s style. I have many favorites and I try to imbibe different learnings from a variety of investment experts.”
To unwind, Pankaj likes to play with his kid. “He is the biggest source of joy for me. I like playing with him. During weekends, I love to watch movies. I also enjoy reading.”
