About | Aikya Investment Management

Business

Investment philosophy

Team

Governance and policies

Business

Aikya Investment Management is an independent, employee-owned, investment management company that specialises in managing Emerging Markets equity portfolios.

A long-term approach like ours requires similarly aligned long-term clients, as well as a business structure that supports and nurtures a culture of long-term investment decision making.

We intend to maintain a small and simple organisational structure in order to avoid the bureaucracy and distractions that often arise in larger more complex investment management businesses.

Our partner, Pinnacle, has a long history incubating and supporting boutique investment businesses, with its affiliates collectively managing $40bn of assets. Aikya has been established in a way that will allow the investment professionals to concentrate entirely on investing, with Pinnacle providing supporting services.

This focus on investment performance and tight capacity control should help maximise investment long-term returns for our clients.

Investment philosophy

We treat client money as our own and aim to generate healthy long-term returns with minimal downside. Risk for us is the possibility of permanent loss of capital rather than underperforming a benchmark in the short-term. This absolute return mindset allows us to focus on the highest quality companies, without wasting time on thousands of companies in the Emerging Markets universe.

Aikya’s edge is our long-term approach. We look at the financials of a business and analyse franchise strength in detail, but we are primarily focused on assessing the quality of the business owners and managers whom we choose to invest alongside. We look for long-term stewards who have grown cash flows, navigated a few economic cycles, and demonstrated fairness to all stakeholders. The stewards we back have the qualities to identify sustainable growth opportunities and on occasion turnaround underperforming assets. Such people create shareholder value and drive long-term investment returns.

Sustainability is at the heart of our investment approach. The name Aikya means oneness in Sanskrit which reflects our core belief that true stewards align their businesses with the interests of all stakeholders. Companies that take short cuts when it comes to customers, employees, suppliers, the environment, or broader society are unlikely to be rewarding long-term investments.

Our long holding periods build a sense of partnership with investee companies, who, over time, become increasingly open to engagement. Our relationships allow us to discuss critical sustainability issues with top management; positive engagement on such issues becomes a powerful tool for enhancing the value of our client portfolios.

Team

The Aikya Investment Management team shares a common heritage and has decades of collective experience investing in Emerging Markets. We all passionately believe in both the investment philosophy and the asset class.

Our culture is collegiate and encourages active debate. Everyone in the team is an analyst, and we are all incentivised to think like long-term owners.

Ashish Swarup

Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager

Ashish joined the predecessor business of Stewart Investors in 2014.

During his time at Stewart Investors he was Lead Manager on a few Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific strategies, including Stewart Investors Emerging Markets Leaders Fund.

He was with Fidelity between 2004 and 2014. In 2008, he launched an Emerging Markets Equity Strategy with high-quality companies, which became Fidelity Institutional Asset Management (FIAM) EM All Cap in 2010. He managed this strategy until his departure in 2014.

Ashish has a degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, a Post Graduate Diploma from Indian Institute of Management, and holds an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Rahul Desai

Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager

Between 2014 and 2019, Rahul was Portfolio Manager of Fidelity Institutional (FIAM) EM All Cap Strategy. He joined Fidelity in 2008 as an Emerging Markets analyst and was appointed Assistant Portfolio Manager to Ashish Swarup on the FIAM EM All Cap Strategy.

His career started with Boston Consulting Group in Singapore in 2003, where he spent time on the ground in most Asian capital cities.

Rahul has a degree in Computer Science from National University of Singapore and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Tom Allen

Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager

He most recently worked for Stewart Investors in London.

Tom joined the predecessor business of Stewart Investors in 2012. He initially worked in Singapore, before moving to Edinburgh to work on Asia Pacific strategies.

From 2015, Tom was part of the Stewart Investors team in London. He co-managed Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets strategies with Ashish Swarup from 2017.

He has a degree in History from University College London (UCL).

Alan Nesbit

Investment Analyst

He most recently worked for Stewart Investors in London.

Alan was Deputy Head of Emerging Markets at Stewart Investors and its predecessor businesses between 2000 and 2016. He returned to Stewart Investors as a consultant in 2019.

From 1985 to 2000, Alan worked at Deutsche Asset Management (formerly Morgan Grenfell) as an Americas Portfolio Manager. During this time, he pioneered Morgan Grenfell’s research into Latin America, launching their Latin America Fund in 1993.

His investing career started in 1976 with Philip Hill Management, where he managed a US equities strategy.

Michael Summers

Investment Analyst and Head of Dealing

He most recently worked for Stewart Investors in London.

Michael held various operational roles at Stewart Investors and its parent company First State between 2002 and 2018. From 2015 he was Deputy Head of Dealing at Stewart Investors.

In 2018 he worked as an Investment Specialist on Emerging Markets strategies at Stewart Investors.

Michael is a CFA Charterholder.

Alex Khosla

Investment Analyst

He most recently worked for Stewart Investors in London.

Alex joined Stewart Investors as an Investment Analyst in 2017. Previously, Alex worked on Emerging Markets strategies at AXA Framlington, and covered Latin American equities at UBS.

He has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and is studying for a part-time Masters in Chinese Studies at SOAS.

Alex is a CFA Charterholder.

Trevor Fung

Investment Analyst

He most recently worked for Income Partners in Hong Kong.

Trevor worked as an Investment Analyst at Income Partners between 2013 and 2020.

He specialised in Asian credit research, which involved significant bottom-up analysis of companies.

Trevor received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) in 2012.

He is a CFA Charterholder, and is proficient in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

Governance and policies

Engagement & Proxy
Voting Statement

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Aikya Founding
Principles

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Business

We are an independent, employee-owned, investment management company that specialises in managing Emerging Markets equity portfolios.

A long-term approach like ours requires similarly aligned long-term clients, as well as a business structure that supports and nurtures a culture of long-term investment decision making.

We intend to maintain a small and simple organisational structure in order to avoid the bureaucracy and distractions that often arise in larger more complex investment management businesses.

This focus on investment performance and tight capacity control should help maximise investment long-term returns for our clients.

Investment philosophy

Team

The team shares a common heritage and has decades of collective experience investing in Emerging Markets. We all passionately believe in both the investment philosophy and the asset class.

Our culture is collegiate and encourages active debate. Everyone in the team is an analyst, and we are all incentivised to think like long-term owners.