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Homegrown alternative asset manager Omkarm Capital has launched its recent Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) targeting INR 300cr including green shoe option. The Fund will focus on infrastructure logistics space and has received significant interest from investors across family offices, ultra-high-net investors and institutional investors.

The Fund is a Category II AIF under SEBI AIF Regulations. Omkarm sees Indian infrastructure logistics as one of the areas that will drive the country forward as well as deliver high quality returns, thereby aligning with the investment manager’s core value of delivering Purpose backed Returns. The fund, backed by Czar Capital, the Indian arm of a marquee single family office (Kothari Family) that has presence in India as well as in the US, has found solid resonance with investors given its capital distribution strategy- that blends periodic income distribution alongside capital growth. Therefore, targeting investors whose primary objective is to protect capital first and foremost, and then adding to capital growth - hence appropriately timed considering the current economic environment. The investment strategy also benefits from a natural inflation hedge.

Speaking about the current strategy, Lavneesh Mohan, Director, Czar Capital said, “As a single family office investor, we are meticulous with risk management and as a result, prioritise capital protection. Given the current growth-starved world scenario, we believe India is now a global investment destination and needs to be on the radar from a global as well as a domestic investor perspective. This was augmented by India receiving its highest ever FDI in FY22 at USD 83.6 bn. With several policy reforms underway and solid fundamentals, India is poised for unprecedented economic growth and we believe that the Omkarm strategy provides one of the best risk adjusted return strategy; a clear play on the India growth story with an inflation hedge”.

“It is no secret that, with its strong fundamentals and its transitioning into one of world’s Top 3 economies, India stands tall as an economic powerhouse in an increasingly uncertain world where some of the other large economies are staring at a recession. The question, therefore, is what’s right for India? What does India need to grow into a USD 5 tn, 10 tn, 15 tn economy? At Omkarm we believe- what’s right for India, Omkarm will align,” said Kaustav Saha, Managing Director, Omkarm Capital.

“High quality physical infrastructure logistics is a critical backbone for a country. A backbone because it provides the platform on which businesses are conducted that would enable this growth for India. And the demand for capital there is immense thereby making it a highly scalable asset class. To add to that, by focusing on the income producing nature of these assets and thereby distributing the income stream to investors, we have designed our investment strategy to minimize downsides and offer outsized returns relative to the current economic climate. We’ve observed this is what people are liking about Omkarm,” mentioned Saha, who had a long stint earlier with British financial services group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest in the UK before moving to India.

Underscoring the tremendous growth potential that India offers in an increasingly volatile global environment, one where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest World Economic Outlook Report 2023 released on April 2023 expects World economic output to reduce from 3.4% 2022 to 2.8% 2023 amidst “uncertain” outlook given high inflation, geo-political crisis in Europe and 3 years of COVID. The same report projects India to grow at 5.9% in 2023. Hence Omkarm’s confidence in the India potential is timely.

The investment manager also counts highly reputed investment and financial services industry stalwarts on its Advisory Board that includes Somak Ghosh and Shailesh Ghorpade. Somak is a veteran banker and is now the Founder of Contrarian Dhrishti, an investment firm that manages a SEBI registered AIF for growth companies with social impact. Shailesh is the Founding Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Exfinity, an investment firm managing SEBI registered funds and focussing on deep technology companies. Omkarm’s balanced approach, that meshes measured conservatism with being opportunistic based on market cycles, also includes other areas in the alternative asset space as part of the overall capital plan - one that the asset manager hopes will bolster India’s growth, build investor wealth, support businesses, create more jobs and uplift lives.