SIF segment poised to gain traction as investors look beyond traditional mutual funds: Mahindra Manulife CEO

India’s Specialized Investment Fund (SIF) segment is poised to gain traction as investors look beyond traditional mutual fund strategies and seek differentiated investment solutions, Mahindra Manulife Investment Management MD & CEO Anthony Heredia said.

“We are confident that the SIF platform will become a meaningful part of the investment product ecosystem over the next few years,” Heredia told Fortune India. He said SIFs could potentially offer better risk-reward outcomes while retaining the tax efficiency and governance framework of mutual funds.

Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund has launched the MSIF Equity Long-Short Fund, with the new fund offer opening on September 30 and closing on October 14. The scheme will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase from October 26.

Introduced by Sebi, SIFs seek to bridge the gap between traditional mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services (PMS), offering differentiated investment strategies within a regulated mutual fund framework.

SIFs could appeal to a wider investor base

Heredia said SIFs could become relevant beyond HNI and sophisticated investors as more investors entrust larger sums to mutual funds.

“From our own experience, we have seen that the number of investors willing to entrust larger sums of money to mutual funds has grown very significantly, and that is not restricted to HNI or sophisticated investor segments,” he said.

Once the ₹10 lakh threshold is crossed in a particular SIF, investors can invest smaller amounts or start investing through SIPs, the Mahindra Manulife CEO added.

On market conditions, Heredia said volatility and valuation dispersion are not recent phenomena, keeping the broad approach to investing unchanged. However, sector and theme rotation has become more dynamic, making it important to track changes in profit-pool participation.

“Our experience suggests if we have able to spot such trends early, it helps us work through sector rotation challenges and often turn them into opportunities,” he said.

Mahindra Manulife’s long-short strategy

The Mahindra Manulife equity long-short fund will invest predominantly in listed equities and equity-related instruments, while selectively taking short positions through derivatives. It aims to generate long-term capital appreciation by identifying opportunities across market environments.

“The launch of the MSIF Equity Long-Short Fund marks our entry into the Specialized Investment Fund space and reflects our commitment to offering differentiated investment solutions aligned with evolving investor needs,” Heredia said.

“This offering combines the flexibility of a long-short approach with the transparency, governance and discipline of the mutual fund framework,” he added.

The strategy combines top-down macroeconomic analysis with bottom-up stock selection, assessing factors such as interest rates, inflation, economic growth, liquidity, market flows and geopolitical developments, alongside fundamental and quantitative research.

Its risk management framework includes stock-level and portfolio hedges, sector exposure limits, position limits and drawdown controls.

On the short side, the fund will evaluate business fundamentals, governance, ownership patterns, earnings outlook and valuations. Short positions will be initiated when supported by identified catalysts and investment conviction.

The fund will be managed by Abhishek Jaiswal and Aalap Shah. Jaiswal has over 18 years of investment management experience, including more than a decade in long-short portfolios. Shah has over 20 years of experience in Indian equity and derivatives markets and has contributed to managing investment strategies overseeing more than US$5 billion in assets.