Ravi Samalad & Pallabika Ganguly trace the success story of Piyush Desai and find that he will go to any lengths to engage with his clients
Mumbai: Piyush Desai is a man with a mission. He aims to expand his assets under advisory to Rs 500 crore this year from the current Rs 400 crore. He has come a long way from the time when he launched V Care Investments in 2004 with a modest client base of 25.
The 51 year old is a commerce graduate and holds a Masters in Financial Management (MFSM) degree. He is currently pursuing CFP. Being an ex merchant banker with Central Bank of India, Piyush knows the pulse of the markets. He was also a Managing Partner in a stock broking firm for 17 years.
To expand his clientele further, Piyush tapped a few people he knew from his merchant banking field. He started updating them on new products and made investment recommendations. Piyush found that people were very keen on investing in stock markets. However, he has seen people make and lose fortunes in a matter of seconds by investing directly in stock markets. So, he started advising investors to participate in stock markets through equity funds.
In a matter of just seven years, he has built a 700 strong client base comprising HNIs, retail clients and firms. His clientele also includes some Bollywood celebs. Handling celebrity accounts is not an easy task as access to them is difficult. Sometimes, he has to spend the entire day to meet them for ten minutes.
Piyush is known to go to any lengths to engage meaningfully with his investors. Highly inspired by Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad, he asked Bellum Tang (a colleague of Robert Kiyosaki) and his wife to organize a special workshop for his clients in Mumbai’s ITC Grand Central. In this free workshop, his clients played Cashflow 101 How to Get Out of the Rat Race game, ordered from US at a cost of Rs 10,000 per piece. The reason behind arranging this workshop was that he wanted to guide his clients to get out of the rat race. He spent Rs. 12 lakh of his own money on the event.
Piyush tries to stay away from new fund offers. He narrows down on a few quality funds and recommends investing in these funds during market dips. He is very cautious in adding new funds to his client’s portfolio.
He was among the very few advisors who were able to protect their client’s money in the 2008 market crash. Anticipating an imminent downturn, he shifted 70 per cent of his client’s portfolio from equity to debt in 2007.
Piyush says the recessionary phase was a challenging one to get new investors. Due to the negative publicity surrounding distributors and the industry, some of his investors were wary of investing in mutual funds. “My clients were not investing. They said that your industry is not stable, let it get stable and then we will invest,” points out Piyush.
Piyush comes from a Gujarati family. His brother in law, an avid stock market investor, taught him the nuances of markets during his school days in 1976.
In 1981, his father gave him Rs 3000. He bought 300 stocks of India Cements, the first investment of his life. The scrip was trading at Rs. 5 on BSE. “The government de-controlled the cement industry and the stock price immediately shot up to Rs 21. I then started investing in other scrips with the profits I earned from that stock,” recalls Piyush.
Piyush has won many accolades for his outstanding contribution in generating business for various fund houses. In 2005, he got his first award from HDFC Mutual Fund for collecting Rs 16 crore in six months time. Today, you can see client testimonials, certificates and awards all over in his office.
In 2005, Kalpesh Ashar who had a decade of expertise in mutual funds with a finance group in Muscat joined Piyush. “Kalpesh was my investor but I convinced him to become an associate of the company. Due to his long overseas & international exposure, he primarily handles the NRI clientele of the group,” adds Piyush.
In 2005, Piyush got his company ISO 9001-2000 certified.
Piyush is a member of the popular referral group Business Network International (BNI). Its website claims that the group members have passed 56 lakh referrals and clocked business worth Rs. 10,925 crore. In every meeting, members get an opportunity to pitch their business to 50 businessmen in just 45 seconds. From accountants to wine makers, business professionals from all fields can be part of this group. Piyush says that he has acquired a lot of clients from these meetings in the last five years.
He aims to impart knowledge about investment options, portfolio construction and financial planning by launching a magazine, Journey to Money.
His younger daughter has completed banking and insurance and is currently pursuing CFP while his son is pursuing MBA. His daughter may lend a helping hand to Piyush once she is through CFP.