Can you tell me about the recent tie up between Axis Mutual Fund and Inversion Advisory?

Axis Mutual Fund and Inversion Advisors have recently collaborated for a turnaround fund and they plan to raise Rs.3,500 crore with total focus on investing only in turnaround companies. The structure will be that of an alternate investment fund or AIF and Axis will manage the fund. Inversion will provide its expert inputs to help identify turnaround companies in India with the help of its functional experts.

Inversion Advisors was promoted by Akhil Gupta; the brain behind the rapid growth of Bharti telecom venture and also the key driving force behind the African Zain acquisition in 2007. Inversion has domain industry specialists with deep insights and functional expertise in identifying undervalued targets. This is a unique structure which gives investors access to an absolutely unique and potentially high return class of assets.

Indian mutual funds have been happy with their plain vanilla offerings. Unlike Western markets, there were no alternate assets offered by mutual funds. This is the first example where mutual fund offers alternate assets to investors. It is time for Indian mutual funds to look at differentiating through such innovative asset classes. With $500 billion in AUM, and over 4.50 crore SIP accounts, it is time for mutual funds in India to evolve to the next level.