FUND PHILOSOPHY

Contained headline inflation and slower growth is positive for fixed income market. It will not only help RBI to infuse necessary durable system liquidity but also opens up the possibility of further rate cuts. Global growth inflation dynamics also prompted other key central banks to maintain their growth supportive stance. All these factors are favourable for the domestic fixed income market. Hence, in the near term interest rate movement is likely to be range bound with softer bias. However, over the medium term, Government’s commitment towards fiscal deficit target, crude price movement, progress of monsoon and FII flows are likely to impact the market sentiment.

OVERVIEW OF MARKET

March 2023 was a seismic month in the global markets, as a handful of European & American banks became the first casualties of the war on inflation. Domestically, equity and bond markets remained volatile but rangebound, as the inflation-growth battle continued to keep market participants on tenterhooks. Nifty ended essentially flat for the month, recovering after losing nearly 2% by mid March, while the fixed income market softened on lower supply of gilts and anticipation of a pause in rate hikes by the RBI, in-light of the dovish, symbolic 25 bps hike by the US Federal Reserve.

The surprise in the Finance Bill w.r.t. taxation on debt mutual funds caused significant selling pressure in the 0-3 years segment of the corporate bond market, leading to an inversion of an already-flat yield curve. The government’s borrowing calendar is concentrated in the belly and towards the longer end of the curve, which may spike bond yields going forward, unless there is softening impetus from RBI’s actions or its messaging at the next meeting of the MPC (on 06th April). Even as inflation is expected to ease off during the year on account of high base effect, multiple risk factors remain such as pressure on commodity supply chains from China reopening, impact on harvest from extreme weather events and continuing geopolitical conflicts.

The afore-mentioned banking defaults combined with persistently high inflation saw a global flight to safety with gold prices moving up 10% (in US$ terms) in the first half of the month, before stabilzing as fears of an immediate contagion receded. Crude prices have also eased off significantly on weaker global growth outlook. Lower crude & commodity prices, weaker private consumption, lower trade deficit and higher private transfers resulted in CAD narrowing to 2.2% of GDP from 3.7% in Q2 FY23. Within Nifty, energy, metals & pharma outperformed while IT, auto & media underperformed the benchmark. During the period, both FIIs and domestic mutual funds purchased equities (on net basis) to the tune of ~Rs 5,279 Cr and ~Rs 17,622 Cr* respectively.

EQUITY

Nifty continued to remain rangebound, returning +0.3% for the month. As the stickiness of inflation across the globe is becoming more evident, rate cut expectations are being pushed out into 2024, from the earlier timeline of 2H CY23. Corporate commentary also reflects slowing demand and down-trading among consumers as rising interest rates have led to an upward reset in EMIs. Export demand also remains muted.

In the near-term, equity markets are likely to be driven by Q4 earnings and accompanying management commentary. Barring unforeseen events, we expect markets to remain rangebound with superior stock selection driving returns. Sectors such as Banks, Metals & Capital goods are likely to do well whereas sectors such as IT & Auto may underperform.

FIXED INCOME

Indian fixed income markets are likely to be driven by actions & commentary of central banks, primarily RBI & US Fed. Although domestic bond markets are pricing-in the end of rate hike cycle, the larger government borrowing programme along with tightened domestic liquidity conditions could keep yields elevated, in the absence of any countervailing narrative. We continue to find current absolute yields attractive from a medium-term perspective, with money market investments and short duration bonds being the preferred instruments.

INVESTOR PHILOSOPHY

Provide customers with the best solutions & services

Vision
To be the preferred Life Insurer; to ensure Safety, Liquidity and Profitability of funds, encompassing integrity and transparency in its operations, with an overall objective to meet the Reasonable Expectations of Policyholders.

Objectives

  • To invest the funds in matching assets, to the extent possible, so as to meet the liabilities as and when due
  • To effectively manage the portfolio of investments to yield optimum return
  • To be compliant with all Regulatory norms and to follow prudent practices in operations
  • To carry out the fund management activities in a cost efficient manner

COMPANY INITIATIVE

Constant growth and development

Attract and retain talent and imparts training to the manpower to develop the needed skill sets; In-house Research team and framework for informed fund management decisions. State of the art Investment Management System seamlessly integrating the Front, Mid and Back offices, to effectively manage risks, investment accounting, MIS etc

MODIFIED NAVCOMPUTATION

As per IRDA Circulars ref: IRDA/F&I/CIR/INV/173/08/2011 dated July 29, 2011 and IRDA/F&I/CIR/INV/187/08/2011 dated August 17, 2011, computation of Net Asset Value stands modified with effect from August 18, 2011, as below:

OLD METHOD NEW METHOD

Fund Nav

NAVs (in Rs) as on 29-May-2023

  • Sr. No.1

  • Fund

  • Segregated Fund Identification No.

  • NAV

1 Balanced fundULIF 001 18/02/09 SUD-LI-BL1 14233.4138SD001
2 Equity FundULIF 002 25/02/09 SUD-LI-EQ1 14263.0568SD002
3 Bond FundULIF 004 25/02/09 SUD-LI-BN1 14225.6412SD003
4 Growth FundULIF 003 25/02/09 SUD-LI-GR1 14255.4916SD004
5 Individual Pension Fund - EquityULIF 005 31/03/09 SUD-PI-EQ1 14253.9243SD005
6 Individual Pension Fund - BondULIF 008 31/03/09 SUD-PI-BN1 14225.5908SD006
7 Individual Pension Fund - GrowthULIF 006 31/03/09 SUD-PI-GR1 14244.1075SD007
8 Individual Pension Fund - BalancedULIF 007 31/03/09 SUD-PI-BL1 14233.0591SD008
9 Apex Equity FundULIF 009 20/01/10 SUD-LA-EQ1 14235.9999SD009
10 Apex Bond FundULIF 012 20/01/10 SUD-LA-BN1 14225.1327SD010
11 Apex Growth FundULIF 010 20/01/10 SUD-LA-GR1 14233.9017SD011
12 Apex Balanced FundULIF 011 20/01/10 SUD-LA-BL1 14231.7623SD012
13 Individual Pension Fund - Apex EquityULIF 013 20/01/10 SUD-PA-EQ1 14236.2183SD013
14 Individual Pension Fund - Apex BondULIF 016 20/01/10 SUD-PA-BN1 14224.2920SD014
15 Individual Pension Fund - Apex GrowthULIF 014 20/01/10 SUD-PA-GR1 14233.2008SD015
16 Individual Pension Fund - Apex BalancedULIF 015 20/01/10 SUD-PA-BL1 14231.0435SD016
17 Express Balanced FundULIF 017 29/04/11 SUD-LX-BL1 14225.5765SD017
18 Discontinued FundULIF 018 03/06/11 SUD-UL-DP1 14220.6521SD018
19 Individual Life - Bluechip Equity FundULIF 019 11/12/13 SUD-LI-EQ2 14227.0387SD019
20 Individual Life - Income FundULIF 020 11/12/13 SUD-LI-BN2 14218.4972SD020
21 Individual Life - Growth Plus FundULIF 023 11/12/13 SUD-LI-GR2 14225.1975SD023
22 Individual Life - Balanced Plus FundULIF 024 11/12/13 SUD-LI-BL2 14221.9063SD024
23 Unclaimed Policies Unit Linked FundULIF 025 09/11/16 SUD-LN-UUF14214.1730SD029
24 Group Debt FundULGF 003 20/03/15 SUD-GN-BN1 14216.3545SD027
25 Group Money Market FundULGF 004 20/03/15 SUD-GN-MM1 14211.6703SD028
26 Group Balanced FundULGF 002 20/03/15 SUD-GN-BL1 14213.0365SD026
27 Individual Life - Mid Cap FundULIF 026 14/10/19 SUD-LI-MID 14215.7252SD030
28 Individual Life - Gilt FundULIF 027 14/10/19 SUD-LI-GLT 14211.4378SD031
29 Dynamic FundULIF 028 11/06/21 SUD-LI-DYN 14210.9730SD032
30 Money Market FundULIF 029 11/06/21 SUD-LI-MMF 14210.6577SD033
Fund Philosophy

FUND
MANAGEMENT
TEAM

Get to know the
fund management team
at our company

Mr. Prashant Sharma

CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER

Qualifications: CA, CFA

Experience: More than two decades of experience of handling Investments. Prashant has been responsible for overall investment portfolios, formulating investment policies, generating reasonable returns and appropriate risk management. He has been also responsible for Corporate Strategy, Products, MIS and Assurance services in his previous roles and has been an active member of Executive Committee and Steering committees.

Prior to joining the company, he was Chief Investment Officer at Aviva Life Insurance. He was also associated with Max Life Insurance in the capacity of Chief Investment Officer in the past.

Mr. Ram Kamal Samanta

HEAD OF FIXED INCOME

Qualifications: Post--graduation in Economics from JNU, PGDBA with specialisation in Finance, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA – ICFAI India), certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM from GARP USA) and Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers(CAIIB),Fellow of Life Insurance from Insurance Institute of India.

Experience: More than two decades of experience in financial markets (both fixed income and equity) as a research analyst and fund manager. Prior to joining SUD Life, he was with SBI DFHI LTD as Vice President, Investment for 13 years.

Guest speaker at various reputed institutes including Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kolkata, National Institute of Securities Market (NISM) and National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) Pune.

Mr. Jagdish Bhanushali

FUND MANAGER – EQUITY

Qualifications: CFA (CFA Institute) & FRM (Global Association of Risk Professional)

Experience: Greater than 13 years’ of Experience in to Indian Equity Market. Prior joining SUD Life, he worked as Senior Equity Analyst with Florintree Advisors.

Along with being Equity Analyst, he was also associated as Guest Faculty with Mithibai College of Science & Commerce and SIES College of Commerce & Economics.

Mr. Sujay Nimkar

FUND MANAGER - FIXED INCOME​

Qualifications: MBA (Finance) & B.E. (Mechanical)

Experience: 10+ years of experience in fixed income markets across rating agencies and Investment banks.

Prior to joining SUD Life, he was working as senior analyst with ICRA Ltd,He has also been associated with Deutsche bank, Credit Suisse and CRISIL Ltd.

Mr. Jimesh Sanghvi

SR EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST​

Qualifications: Chartered Accountant

Experience: More than 17 years of experience as an Equity Research Analyst for the Indian markets both on the buy side as well as sell side.

Prior to joining SUD Life, he was a senior Equity Research Analyst with Principal Asset Management covering multiple sectors.

He has also been associated with SBICAP Securities and Avendus Securities in the past..

Awarded Reuters Star Mine award for stock picking in Metals and Mining Sector during 2013 and 2014.

Mr. Hasmukh Vishariya

EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST​

A qualified Chartered Accountant started his career with the company in October 2017

Mr. Rishav Jain

CREDIT ANALYST​

Qualifications: Chartered Accountant, B.Com(H)

Experience: 3 years post qualification experience, with 1.5 years as macro and credit analyst.

Prior to joining SUD Life, he was associated with PwC.

Mr. Meet Kachhy

LEAD ANALYST ON ALTERNATE ASSETS​

Qualifications: MBA, CFA, B.E. (Hons)

Experience: More than a decade’s experience across investing (public & private markets ), corporate finance & strategy.

Prior experience includes stints at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, VC fund Jupiter Capital and education start-up XSeed.

CHANGE IN VALUATION OF EQUITY

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​