Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO of Edelweiss AMC, leads webinar titled, ‘The Girl with a Broken Neck’, hosted by the Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management in collaboration with the Centre for Capital Markets & Risk Management
13 May, 2021, Bengaluru: An inspiration to every woman, Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management Company, intrigued her audience during a fireside chat on May 02, 2021 as part of the LeaderSpeak Series, hosted by IIM Bangalore’s two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM), in collaboration with the institute’s Centre for Capital Markets and Risk Management (CCMRM). The webinar, titled, ‘The Girl with Broken Neck’, witnessed a huge and enthusiastic audience.
Radhika Gupta, daughter of an Indian Foreign Services Officer, spent her early years in Pakistan and then spent her growing up years in Nigeria, New York, Zambia and Italy. She completed her education from the Wharton University of the University of Pennsylvania and joined McKinsey and Company as a Business Analyst. Along with two of her close friends, she co-founded Forefront Capital Management in 2009 which was later acquired by Edelweiss Financial Services Limited in 2014.
Radhika is also a keen storyteller and a Twitter microblogger. She graduated summa cum laude (with the highest distinction) from the Wharton School. In 2020, Fortune India honored her as among the ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India’.
Through mergers and acquisitions
Radhika says she has seen the worst of times before her present state of ‘pink in wealth’. Forefront Capital, her beginning to the entrepreneurship frontier after a stint at Wall Street, was an emotional investment evolving her into what she is today. An asset management company, it began with an investment capital of Rs 25 lakh. It took a lot of toil and tears to finally establish the business in 2009. An exhaustive acquisition process over a period of more than nine months finally found Edelweiss Financial Services as its acquirer in 2014. Acquisition of a financial services company includes the asset as well as the asset managers. Though Radhika Gupta was bonded with Edelweiss for a period of three years, her out-of-the box thinking, management capabilities and strong decision-making abilities have kept her associated with the firm till date. She is one of the youngest CEOs and one of the very few women handling a $4 billion asset.
Mutual funds and you
Radhika explained that the marketing campaigns of Edelweiss highlight ‘Advisor Zaruri Hain’. A collection of market dynamic factors like volatility, plenty options, structured asset allocation, tax saving help, etc. require advice as a necessary tool before venturing into the mutual fund industry. “Mutual funds provide easy access to both equity and debt markets. Most finance articles extensively speak about ‘asset allocation’ and ‘diversification’. Professional help from a financial advisor can assist in constructing a balanced portfolio and diversifying the investments into various asset classes”.
She pointed out that it was a difficult task to make people enter the mutual fund industry due to the risk involved. “Mutual fund penetration in the country is 10% of GDP, whereas the world average is 40%. In a country where the Prime Minister is still urging its citizens to open bank accounts and take up digital cashless transactions, it is a humongous task to get people into investing in SIPs”. Radhika stated that as India is an extremely volatile country, it is better “Not to overestimate the good times and never should we extrapolate the bad times”.
Radhika believes that communication is the key to eradicate inhibitions surrounding mutual fund investing. A financial advisor should ensure simplifying the products being sold to make it understandable and comprehensible to the public. Given the present pandemic scenario, it is advisable to go digital in marketing the products. A single mobile phone becomes a branch. With a click one can open an account, constructing a portfolio and start investing. The baby steps to larger wealth creation are studying the basics of finance, she added.
“Bharat bond was a big achievement of Edelweiss Financial Services. In the year 2017, Edelweiss introduced the Bharat bond, an Exchange Traded Fund, listed on the NIFTY Index. The first set introduced in 2019 was oversubscribed 1.7 times. The fund management fee is extremely low at Re 1 for a Rs 2,00,000 investment. Bharat bond has a predefined maturity horizon and invests in AAA rated bonds of public sector companies. It has an option of five-year maturity and another of 11 years. There is no lock-in period and trading happens through Edelweiss AMC.”
Innumerable platforms are available for financial education. “It is always advisable to read and study for some time before venturing into the world of investing”, recommended Radhika. Platform for Investor’s Education (PIE) is one such financial education forum. PIE, a collaboration between the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and CCMRM, is a collection of videos, podcasts and deep dives about investment management. It also comprises the speaker sessions and discussion forums on real-life financial issues.
An interesting section of the session was Radhika’s take on fund allocation. She believes in a balanced advantage fund, that is, SIPs with a combination of mid and small cap funds, international funds - a combination of emerging market funds and some from developed markets. It is essential to have an investment strategy and stick to it for a longer term in order to accumulate higher results. The power of compounding wealth over the years is immense. Radhika said she wishes to see a larger number of women in finance, representing the higher positions and making investments easier and simpler for the masses. She believes in the saying ‘Aim for the stars, you will land somewhere in between’. “Every soul has the potential to touch the skies. One must make optimal use of every opportunity to fulfill their dreams”.
Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO of Edelweiss AMC, leads webinar titled, ‘The Girl with a Broken Neck’, hosted by the Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management in collaboration with the Centre for Capital Markets & Risk Management
13 May, 2021, Bengaluru: An inspiration to every woman, Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management Company, intrigued her audience during a fireside chat on May 02, 2021 as part of the LeaderSpeak Series, hosted by IIM Bangalore’s two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM), in collaboration with the institute’s Centre for Capital Markets and Risk Management (CCMRM). The webinar, titled, ‘The Girl with Broken Neck’, witnessed a huge and enthusiastic audience.
Radhika Gupta, daughter of an Indian Foreign Services Officer, spent her early years in Pakistan and then spent her growing up years in Nigeria, New York, Zambia and Italy. She completed her education from the Wharton University of the University of Pennsylvania and joined McKinsey and Company as a Business Analyst. Along with two of her close friends, she co-founded Forefront Capital Management in 2009 which was later acquired by Edelweiss Financial Services Limited in 2014.
Radhika is also a keen storyteller and a Twitter microblogger. She graduated summa cum laude (with the highest distinction) from the Wharton School. In 2020, Fortune India honored her as among the ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India’.
Through mergers and acquisitions
Radhika says she has seen the worst of times before her present state of ‘pink in wealth’. Forefront Capital, her beginning to the entrepreneurship frontier after a stint at Wall Street, was an emotional investment evolving her into what she is today. An asset management company, it began with an investment capital of Rs 25 lakh. It took a lot of toil and tears to finally establish the business in 2009. An exhaustive acquisition process over a period of more than nine months finally found Edelweiss Financial Services as its acquirer in 2014. Acquisition of a financial services company includes the asset as well as the asset managers. Though Radhika Gupta was bonded with Edelweiss for a period of three years, her out-of-the box thinking, management capabilities and strong decision-making abilities have kept her associated with the firm till date. She is one of the youngest CEOs and one of the very few women handling a $4 billion asset.
Mutual funds and you
Radhika explained that the marketing campaigns of Edelweiss highlight ‘Advisor Zaruri Hain’. A collection of market dynamic factors like volatility, plenty options, structured asset allocation, tax saving help, etc. require advice as a necessary tool before venturing into the mutual fund industry. “Mutual funds provide easy access to both equity and debt markets. Most finance articles extensively speak about ‘asset allocation’ and ‘diversification’. Professional help from a financial advisor can assist in constructing a balanced portfolio and diversifying the investments into various asset classes”.
She pointed out that it was a difficult task to make people enter the mutual fund industry due to the risk involved. “Mutual fund penetration in the country is 10% of GDP, whereas the world average is 40%. In a country where the Prime Minister is still urging its citizens to open bank accounts and take up digital cashless transactions, it is a humongous task to get people into investing in SIPs”. Radhika stated that as India is an extremely volatile country, it is better “Not to overestimate the good times and never should we extrapolate the bad times”.
Radhika believes that communication is the key to eradicate inhibitions surrounding mutual fund investing. A financial advisor should ensure simplifying the products being sold to make it understandable and comprehensible to the public. Given the present pandemic scenario, it is advisable to go digital in marketing the products. A single mobile phone becomes a branch. With a click one can open an account, constructing a portfolio and start investing. The baby steps to larger wealth creation are studying the basics of finance, she added.
“Bharat bond was a big achievement of Edelweiss Financial Services. In the year 2017, Edelweiss introduced the Bharat bond, an Exchange Traded Fund, listed on the NIFTY Index. The first set introduced in 2019 was oversubscribed 1.7 times. The fund management fee is extremely low at Re 1 for a Rs 2,00,000 investment. Bharat bond has a predefined maturity horizon and invests in AAA rated bonds of public sector companies. It has an option of five-year maturity and another of 11 years. There is no lock-in period and trading happens through Edelweiss AMC.”
Innumerable platforms are available for financial education. “It is always advisable to read and study for some time before venturing into the world of investing”, recommended Radhika. Platform for Investor’s Education (PIE) is one such financial education forum. PIE, a collaboration between the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and CCMRM, is a collection of videos, podcasts and deep dives about investment management. It also comprises the speaker sessions and discussion forums on real-life financial issues.
An interesting section of the session was Radhika’s take on fund allocation. She believes in a balanced advantage fund, that is, SIPs with a combination of mid and small cap funds, international funds - a combination of emerging market funds and some from developed markets. It is essential to have an investment strategy and stick to it for a longer term in order to accumulate higher results. The power of compounding wealth over the years is immense. Radhika said she wishes to see a larger number of women in finance, representing the higher positions and making investments easier and simpler for the masses. She believes in the saying ‘Aim for the stars, you will land somewhere in between’. “Every soul has the potential to touch the skies. One must make optimal use of every opportunity to fulfill their dreams”.