Prashant Jain, Chief Investment Officer of the HDFC Asset Management Company has resigned after putting in 19 years of service in the fund house.
Jain was managing three schemes -- HDFC Balnced Advantage, Flexi Cap and Top 100 Fund -- with combined assets of about ₹90,000 crore as of July 20, about 4.5 per cent of the equity assets managed by all Indian mutual funds.
A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Jain started his career at SBI Caps in 1991 and was deputed to SBI Mutual Funds during a very bullish period of the Indian market.
In 1993, Jain ended his stint at SBI MF to join the founding team of 20th Century Mutual Fund. It was here in January 1994 that Jain launched the Centurion Prudence Fund, which later became the HDFC Prudence Fund and is currently known as HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund – a 27-year-long journey that puts him in the list of the world’s longest-serving fund managers.
In 1999, Zurich India Mutual Fund took over the 20th Century MF and Jain became the chief investment officer.
HDFC MF acquired Zurich India MF in early 2003.
Fresh appointment
The Board on Friday has approved the appointment of Chirag Setalvad as Head - Equities and Shobhit Mehrotra as Head-Fixed income. Both of them will be reporting to Navneet Munot, Managing Director & CEO of the company.
Setalvad has been part of the investment team since inception of the company. He had a break of 2.5 years stint outside the fund house in October 2004 and rejoined in March 2007.
He has been managing over ₹63,000 crore of assets across four funds: HDFC Midcap Opportunities, Hybrid Equity, Small Cap and Children’s Gift.
Mehrotra has been with the fund house for over 18 years, and presently manages over ₹35,000 crore of assets across over 20 debt funds.