Prashant Jain, the poster boy fund manager of HDFC Mutual Fund has tendered his resignation. He was the chief investment officer of the fund house. Prashant Jain was himself managing three flagship schemes of the fund house – HDFC Balanced Advantage fund, HDFC Flexi Cap fund, and HDFC Top 100 fund.
A person from the fund house has confirmed to Outlook Money that Jain has tendered his resignation. He also confirmed that they are in the process of filing this information to the exchange.
The speculation about Jain’s exit was at rife when Navneet Munot took charge as the chief executive officer (CEO) of HDFC Mutual Fund after the retirement of Milind Varve.
Many of his contemporaries believed that it would be difficult for Prashant Jain to work under the new CEO, who is also from the fund management background.
Navneet Munot was the chief investment officer at SBI Mutual fund prior to joining HDFC MF as the CEO. Incidentally, the fund house also saw a decent redemption pressure, as the mutual fund distributor community was not willing to take any chances. The speculation came true, but it took longer time than anticipated.
We tried to contact Parshant Jain, but he was unavailable for comments. A person close to him hinted that he is going to start his own investing firm soon.
Being a fund manager is not an easy task, considering the heightened volatility, higher investor expectations for returns, watertight regulatory framework, and the pressure to outperform peers.
Indeed, very few have beaten the odds, shouldered ups and downs, focused on long-term growth, and delivered market-beating returns. They are the few who have added much value to your funds.
Prashant Jain was one man who withstood all this for 28 years, and managed to deliver better returns – a feat that is never easy in a market that’s ever so finicky.
The down-to-earth fund manager didn’t really imagine that one day he would be managing such large funds, let alone top the list as a renowned fund manager. After earning his bachelor’s as a technocrat from the prestigious IIT-Kanpur, and his post-graduation in business studies from IIM-Bangalore, fate led him to SBI Caps, where he was recruited as a research analyst in the mutual fund department.
In one of my previous interactions, when I asked him how he became fund manager, he replied in his soft voice: “After recruitment, everybody was offered a section. Somebody got marketing, some operation, and I was offered research.”
Over the years, Prashant Jain had honed his acumen to pick the right stocks for a right price, and that’s what made him a unique fund manager.
What also makes him unique in this Rs. 37 lakh crore industry is the fact that he holds the record for being the longest-serving fund manager in the mutual fund industry in India!
