INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
By Subhadip Sircar and Divya PatilLots of female chief executive officers have stories about conquering adversity
Radhika Gupta’s begins when she entered the world with a broken neck.
The birth complication left Gupta’s neck with a permanent tilt, a
feature that at times had an impact on her self esteem but has now become a source of inspiration for doing things differently
At 36, she has already set up India’s first domestic hedge fund and become the country’s only female head of a major asset
manager.
Gupta’s latest superlative, launching India’s first exchange-traded fund for corporate debt in December, is part of her
ambitious plan to increase Edelweiss Asset Management’s client assets from about $4 billion to more than $40 billion by 2025.
“It gives
you something,” Gupta said of her life’s ups and downs, including the complication at her birth
At the very minimum, “it gives you a good story to tell.”
Born in Pakistan, where her Indian diplomat father was posted, Gupta spent her
childhood wherever he was serving at the time.
From studying at an international school in Nigeria with the daughters of warlords to trying
to fit in with rich adolescent girls in America, it was a steep learning curve grappling with new languages and cultures
At first, she was self-conscious about her neck, but over time she learned to accept it as part of what makes her unique.
Indian
TakeawayGupta found respite in academics, going on to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she graduated summa cum laude
She founded an Indian takeaway for fellow students while at the college.
Yet despite passing with top honors, when it came to campus
recruitment, she was repeatedly rejected by consulting companies
At one point, she said she even contemplated suicide.
“This was a horrible phase,” Gupta, relaxed and talkative, recalls from her
brightly lit office, which has a print of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” on the wall behind her desk.
The turning point came when
she interviewed with a McKinsey - Co
partner who happened to be a tournament-level bridge player
The game is known for its older fans, but Gupta had taken it up when she was 12 at the insistence of her parents
She and the partner bonded over their shared hobby, and she got the job.
After 1 1/2 years at the consulting company, Gupta left to join AQR
Capital Management, the $186 billion investment firm co-founded by Cliff Asness
But just as the global financial crisis was unfolding, Gupta felt an urge to start out on her own.
Investment StartupIn 2009, she, her
husband Nalin Moniz and a colleague from AQR decided to go back to India to start Forefront Capital Management, with the princely sum of 2.5
They focused on alternative investments, a new phenomenon in India at the time
In the process, they set up the country’s first domestic-registered hedge fund.
In 2014 they sold the firm to Edelweiss Financial
Services, with Gupta taking a post at the company and going on to become CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management in February 2017
Since then, she’s built assets under management to 300 billion rupees, in businesses including mutual funds, alternative investments and
portfolio-management services
That’s up from about 80 billion rupees when she took over.
BloombergThe company is still only a medium-sized player in India’s
Larger rivals such as HDFC Asset Management Co
and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co
each have more than $50 billion in mutual fund assets.
So it created a stir when the government chose Edelweiss to manage its first
corporate debt ETF, beating four larger players
Gupta said she made 50 trips to New Delhi since getting the mandate in January 2019 to speak with government officials, index providers and
state-run borrowers to get the product design right.
ETF LaunchThe ETF collected more than 120 billion rupees at launch, 1.8 times the base
subscription, with about 55,000 retail buyers
2 and has since grown in size
The expense ratio of 0.0005 per cent makes it one of the world’s least costly funds of this type
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans for a second ETF in the budget, this time comprising government debt.
Gupta and her
staff are seeking to increase the company’s assets under management to 3 trillion rupees by 2025, or about $41 billion
But it won’t be easy for Edelweiss to break into the top bracket as the industry is fragmented and top-heavy, according to Value Research
Ltd., a mutual fund advisory firm.
“Although there are no big negatives about the money manager, their funds haven’t done exceptionally
well,” said Dhirendra Kumar, chief executive officer of Value Research
“By launching unique products like the ETF, Radhika is trying to make Edelweiss a meaningful player and get the business going.”
Gupta
says doing things differently is a key part of her firm’s strategy, and that launching the debt ETF is a step in that direction.
In
addition to running Edelweiss, Gupta has become a public speaker
A YouTube video of one of her talks, titled “The Girl With a Broken Neck,” has been viewed more than 110,000 times
Gupta speaks passionately about how she came to terms with her birth complication, saying that at one point she even feared losing weight
because it would show the tilt
She also speaks about the time she considered suicide, saying all of these moments in life, both good and bad, should be processed and
accepted, because they define who people are.
“Celebrate all your perfections
Celebrate all your imperfections,” she said in the video
“Celebrate everything in the middle
Because when this comes together, this is your own story.”
