Emerging India Fund
In April 2018, Ocean Dial Asset Management, in London, launched the Ocean Dial Emerging India Fund, a daily priced, weekly dealing sub-fund of its Irish regulated UCITS, Open Ended Investment Company. The Fund portfolio invests in listed Indian equities, long only.
The Fund has initial committed investment capital of USD 35 million.
The investment strategy is focused on delivering capital appreciation for investors over the medium to long-term, with a strong bias towards capital preservation by investing in a portfolio of listed Indian stocks. The portfolio contains a moderately concentrated portfolio of companies focusing on market capitalization levels of USD 5 billion and below and sticking to areas of the economy that are well known and understood.
Economic background - The first wave of structural reform to hit India took place in the early 1990’s, opening up the economy to competitive forces, reducing the role of the Government and liberalizing the capital markets.
The subsequent wave is currently 'in train' and follows the 'taper tantrum' of 2013 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in the 2014 General Election. Rapid change across multiple sectors is being accelerated by the IT revolution, of which India leads the vanguard.
Yet in spite of this rapid pace of change, India remains a highly inefficient economy. As a consequence, Ocean Dial envisages high and relatively stable growth over the next 10 years, as the reform process gathers pace, the regulatory environment adapts and productivity flourishes; all in a structurally 'lower cost of capital' environment. This transformation is feeding a dynamic commercial environment, wherein a variety of new businesses and investment themes are emerging, and many legacy enterprises are rapidly adapting.
Investment Philosophy - The investment philosophy underpinning the Emerging India Fund, is to identify and invest in the new breed of entrepreneurs and 'next generation' companies, whilst maintaining strict adherence to an already proven investment process.
The following areas of interest have been identified:
- Identifying companies that will benefit from steady growth in consumption - food processing (dairy, food retailing, beverages), entertainment sector (multiplex cinemas, gyms and theme parks), education and vocational training.
- Ongoing intermediation of financial services to a broader section of society- digital economy, micro-lending and non-banking finance, stock and commodity exchanges.
- Recognising businesses which are enabling and benefitting from a transition to a more sustainable economy, and as such seeing consistent and profitable growth- renewable energy, water treatment and waste management.
- Tomorrow’s leaders; due to a lower cost of capital, more pragmatic regulation, and development of IT, opportunities to emulate current market leaders on profitability parameters in specific sectors are emerging.
- Niche businesses in old economy sectors who are already, or can become, global leaders, specifically in sectors such as chemicals, textiles and industrial consumables.
Digital Technologies
March 2023
Current Status: Active
Indegene
Indegene is a life sciences focused IT solutions provider operating in commercialization services. It works as a leading partner to 19 out of the Top 20 global bio-pharma companies (including Pfizer, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, and J&J) for the digital and AI driven transformation of their commercial, medical, regulatory and R&D operations. The Company operates across USA, UK, Europe, China, Japan and India.
July 2022
Current Status: Active
Xpressbees
Xpressbees is one of the fastest-growing end-to-end logistics companies. In addition to its e-commerce (B2C) division, Xpressbees’ vision to evolve into a strong full-service logistics organization is reflected in its new lines of businesses like 3PL, B2B Xpress, and cross-border operations. With its nationwide network covering over 20,000 pin codes, and 80K+ associations, Xpressbees is delivering happiness to India through an ecosystem of nearly 100,000+ families.
March 2022
Current Status: Active
Juspay
Juspay unifies payment gateways to provide e-commerce merchants with a seamless, secure, reliable, end-to-end and enterprise-grade payment stack. This allows its customer base, which includes the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Meesho, Airtel, Big Basket and Tata Cliq to achieve higher revenue at lower costs.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Zeta
Zeta is a leading provider of cloud-based software for financial institutions like banks and fintech companies. Zeta counts amongst its customers over 10 banks and 25 FinTechs, across 8 countries, including Sodexo, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, RBL Bank among others.
May 2021
Current Status: Active
VerSe Innovation
Dailyhunt is India’s leading news aggregator focused on the vernacular medium. Based in Bengaluru and owned by Ver Se Innovation, Dailyhunt serves content in 14 Indian languages across a mix of categories including news, entertainment, lifestyle, hyperlocal etc. The Company has also recently launched a short video app called Josh, which has grown rapidly to become one of the largest apps in the social engagement category in the country.
March 2021
Current Status: Exited
Delhivery
Delhivery is India’s leading non-captive ecommerce focused logistics and supply chain platform. The company operates India’s largest express parcel transportation network with fully integrated and self-owned pickup, mid-mile and delivery operations. The company delivers across 17,500+ pin codes and 2,300+ cities across India (as at end 2020).
July 2020
Current Status: Active
lenskart.com
Lenskart is the largest player in the Indian branded eyewear & accessories market. Based in New Delhi, Lenskart has a unique omnichannel retail model present across online, offline and even home based sales channels. It has 658 exclusive brand outlets across India (as of January 2021).
Consumption
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Licious
Licious is India’s leading D2C brand operating in the meat and seafood category. Headquartered in Bangalore, and with a presence in 14 other cities, the company follows a farm to fork model where it owns the entire back-end supply chain from procurement to processing, storage and delivery while maintaining the quality and freshness of each product that reaches the consumer. At the time of investment, Licious had successfully delivered to more than 2 million unique customers, with a high degree of repeat purchase.
May 2019
Current Status: Exited
Bikaji Foods
Bikaji is one of India’s leading ethnic snacks companies. Based in Bikaner, Rajasthan, the company has a wide product portfolio consisting of both traditional savoury snacks (bhujia and namkeen) as well as new age snacks including wafers, chips etc. Its products are sold across nearly 20 states in India.
Financial Services
Sep 2021
Current Status: Active
SBI General Insurance Company Limited
SBI General commenced its operations as a joint venture between State Bank of India (‘SBI Bank’) and Insurance Australia Group (‘IAG’). Pursuant to stake sale by IAG in March 2020, SBI Bank now owns 70% in the company, while the balance is held by multiple private equity funds. The company offers a complete suite of products catering to the insurance needs of the retail and the commercial sectors.
Feb 2021
Current Status: Active
NSE
NSE is the largest stock exchange in India. The products on the Exchange are organized into three asset classes for trading: Capital market for the listing and trading of equities (stocks, ETFs including indices based on the NIFTY50 index etc.), fixed income securities (Gsecs, corporate bonds etc.) and the derivatives market (contracts on equity, indices, currency, interest rates and commodities).
Nov 2019
Current Status: Active
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank
Ujjivan is one of the leading small finance banks in India. Based in Bengaluru, the bank has a pan India franchise across 24 states/UTs represented by 575 branches and serving nearly 5.7 million customers (as of December 2020).
Overview-
In April 2018, Ocean Dial Asset Management, in London, launched the Ocean Dial Emerging India Fund, a daily priced, weekly dealing sub-fund of its Irish regulated UCITS, Open Ended Investment Company. The Fund portfolio invests in listed Indian equities, long only.
The Fund has initial committed investment capital of USD 35 million.
Investment Strategy+
The investment strategy is focused on delivering capital appreciation for investors over the medium to long-term, with a strong bias towards capital preservation by investing in a portfolio of listed Indian stocks. The portfolio contains a moderately concentrated portfolio of companies focusing on market capitalization levels of USD 5 billion and below and sticking to areas of the economy that are well known and understood.
Economic background - The first wave of structural reform to hit India took place in the early 1990’s, opening up the economy to competitive forces, reducing the role of the Government and liberalizing the capital markets.
The subsequent wave is currently 'in train' and follows the 'taper tantrum' of 2013 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in the 2014 General Election. Rapid change across multiple sectors is being accelerated by the IT revolution, of which India leads the vanguard.
Yet in spite of this rapid pace of change, India remains a highly inefficient economy. As a consequence, Ocean Dial envisages high and relatively stable growth over the next 10 years, as the reform process gathers pace, the regulatory environment adapts and productivity flourishes; all in a structurally 'lower cost of capital' environment. This transformation is feeding a dynamic commercial environment, wherein a variety of new businesses and investment themes are emerging, and many legacy enterprises are rapidly adapting.
Investment Philosophy - The investment philosophy underpinning the Emerging India Fund, is to identify and invest in the new breed of entrepreneurs and 'next generation' companies, whilst maintaining strict adherence to an already proven investment process.
The following areas of interest have been identified:
- Identifying companies that will benefit from steady growth in consumption - food processing (dairy, food retailing, beverages), entertainment sector (multiplex cinemas, gyms and theme parks), education and vocational training.
- Ongoing intermediation of financial services to a broader section of society- digital economy, micro-lending and non-banking finance, stock and commodity exchanges.
- Recognising businesses which are enabling and benefitting from a transition to a more sustainable economy, and as such seeing consistent and profitable growth- renewable energy, water treatment and waste management.
- Tomorrow’s leaders; due to a lower cost of capital, more pragmatic regulation, and development of IT, opportunities to emulate current market leaders on profitability parameters in specific sectors are emerging.
- Niche businesses in old economy sectors who are already, or can become, global leaders, specifically in sectors such as chemicals, textiles and industrial consumables.
Fund Managers+
Digital Technologies
March 2023
Current Status: Active
Indegene
Indegene is a life sciences focused IT solutions provider operating in commercialization services. It works as a leading partner to 19 out of the Top 20 global bio-pharma companies (including Pfizer, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, and J&J) for the digital and AI driven transformation of their commercial, medical, regulatory and R&D operations. The Company operates across USA, UK, Europe, China, Japan and India.
July 2022
Current Status: Active
Xpressbees
Xpressbees is one of the fastest-growing end-to-end logistics companies. In addition to its e-commerce (B2C) division, Xpressbees’ vision to evolve into a strong full-service logistics organization is reflected in its new lines of businesses like 3PL, B2B Xpress, and cross-border operations. With its nationwide network covering over 20,000 pin codes, and 80K+ associations, Xpressbees is delivering happiness to India through an ecosystem of nearly 100,000+ families.
March 2022
Current Status: Active
Juspay
Juspay unifies payment gateways to provide e-commerce merchants with a seamless, secure, reliable, end-to-end and enterprise-grade payment stack. This allows its customer base, which includes the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Meesho, Airtel, Big Basket and Tata Cliq to achieve higher revenue at lower costs.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Zeta
Zeta is a leading provider of cloud-based software for financial institutions like banks and fintech companies. Zeta counts amongst its customers over 10 banks and 25 FinTechs, across 8 countries, including Sodexo, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, RBL Bank among others.
May 2021
Current Status: Active
VerSe Innovation
Dailyhunt is India’s leading news aggregator focused on the vernacular medium. Based in Bengaluru and owned by Ver Se Innovation, Dailyhunt serves content in 14 Indian languages across a mix of categories including news, entertainment, lifestyle, hyperlocal etc. The Company has also recently launched a short video app called Josh, which has grown rapidly to become one of the largest apps in the social engagement category in the country.
March 2021
Current Status: Exited
Delhivery
Delhivery is India’s leading non-captive ecommerce focused logistics and supply chain platform. The company operates India’s largest express parcel transportation network with fully integrated and self-owned pickup, mid-mile and delivery operations. The company delivers across 17,500+ pin codes and 2,300+ cities across India (as at end 2020).
July 2020
Current Status: Active
lenskart.com
Lenskart is the largest player in the Indian branded eyewear & accessories market. Based in New Delhi, Lenskart has a unique omnichannel retail model present across online, offline and even home based sales channels. It has 658 exclusive brand outlets across India (as of January 2021).
Consumption
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Licious
Licious is India’s leading D2C brand operating in the meat and seafood category. Headquartered in Bangalore, and with a presence in 14 other cities, the company follows a farm to fork model where it owns the entire back-end supply chain from procurement to processing, storage and delivery while maintaining the quality and freshness of each product that reaches the consumer. At the time of investment, Licious had successfully delivered to more than 2 million unique customers, with a high degree of repeat purchase.
May 2019
Current Status: Exited
Bikaji Foods
Bikaji is one of India’s leading ethnic snacks companies. Based in Bikaner, Rajasthan, the company has a wide product portfolio consisting of both traditional savoury snacks (bhujia and namkeen) as well as new age snacks including wafers, chips etc. Its products are sold across nearly 20 states in India.
Financial Services
Sep 2021
Current Status: Active
SBI General Insurance Company Limited
SBI General commenced its operations as a joint venture between State Bank of India (‘SBI Bank’) and Insurance Australia Group (‘IAG’). Pursuant to stake sale by IAG in March 2020, SBI Bank now owns 70% in the company, while the balance is held by multiple private equity funds. The company offers a complete suite of products catering to the insurance needs of the retail and the commercial sectors.
Feb 2021
Current Status: Active
NSE
NSE is the largest stock exchange in India. The products on the Exchange are organized into three asset classes for trading: Capital market for the listing and trading of equities (stocks, ETFs including indices based on the NIFTY50 index etc.), fixed income securities (Gsecs, corporate bonds etc.) and the derivatives market (contracts on equity, indices, currency, interest rates and commodities).