Sandeep Gandhi born and brought up in Africa, controls an impressive AUM of Rs. 130 crore through his Rajkot based firm, Megafina. Jayshree Pyasi traces his journey from Africa to a successful Indian IFA
Across the seas
Sandeep was born in Africa where his father was working as a manager in a wholesale agency. Sandeep completed the initial years of his study in Africa but the lack of quality higher educational facilities compelled him to come to India. Sandeep completed his commerce graduation in Rajkot. During his B. Com years in the early 80’s, the Indian markets were in a boom period and that prompted him to start an investment advisory career which was focused initially on stocks.
Sandeep strongly believes that, by being a link in the capital markets he is benefiting the society. “If I could get people to invest in the market then it was a win-win for both the people of the country as well as the companies. With investing in the companies the people could get a feel of being a part of the economic growth of the country and company. And the companies would be able to fulfill their capital requirement,” says Sandeep.
Soon after he became a sub-broker for IPOs and then there was no looking back. He diversified into mutual funds in 1997.
Sandeep belongs to one of those families where the household members share a passion for investment services. While his wife researches the funds and market, he takes care of client relationships and advising them and his father handles the equity side. “I just talk to people and my wife and father execute,” says Sandeep modestly.
Interestingly, it was his father who joined him contrary to the general advisory biz trend of second generation joining the first generation. His father came back to India at the age of 55 with uncharitable thoughts about the market and referred to it as ‘market ek jua (gamble) hai’. Sandeep patiently explained to him that it was not so and asked him to make his own decision after observing the market. After keen observation for a year, Sandeep’s father realized that market was indeed very fascinating and the result is that the father takes care of the entire equity side of the business.
Megafina meets mega success
Megafina, the company run by the Gandhis has an AUM of Rs.130 crore with Rs. 40 crore parked in equity funds and direct equities. Sandeep caters to a total of 450 families who are mostly retail with regular income flows. Coming from a non-finance background Sandeep brought his business to this level by adopting strategies like mass-mailers (earlier hard copies, later emails) to professionals whose addresses he used to source from various professional directories. Sandeep used to get himself invited to professional meets of engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. He used to participate in informal meetings of Rotary or Lions Club and talk to them about the importance of investing.
He runs a fee-based model and has opted in for the Rs. 100/ 150 transaction charges because some of his clients were reluctant to pay him for his services. “After opting in for the transaction fees we make sure than all our clients are paying us a nominal fees for our services and we have decided to give our regular paying clients discounts,” says Sandeep.
Sandeep has ambitious dreams for Megafina and wants to double the size of his firm in the next five years. He thinks that is possible because of two reasons. The first is that the salaried people have begun to realize the importance of investments and the second is that the distributor community is shrinking. “The number of people who are actively seeking to invest in market is increasing but the number of advisors has decreased. And these clients would come to places where they could get the return of their investment and time,” says Sandeep.
Sandeep is unique because he doesn’t believe in comparisons and doesn’t believe one advisors scores over another in any way. “I am what I am and do what needs to be done to increase the value of my clients’ assets,” says Sandeep.
Words of wisdom
“To retain a client, it is important for the advisor to be passionate about client’s money and deal with them with utmost transparency. If one has passion for the profession, money and success will automatically follow,” says Sandeep.