ASK Investment Managers launches flexicap AIF with digital onboarding

ASK Investment Managers Ltd on August 16 launched a digital onboarding for Alternate Investment Fund (AIF), the first of its kind in the industry for its flexicap portfolio theme.

The ASK Emerging Opportunities Fund, a close-ended category-III long-only AIF is a flexicap portfolio with a midcap bias, and will be investing in listed Indian equities. Category III AIFs employ different trading strategies like long-short, arbitrage, fixed income and derivatives trading.

“With traditional avenues of investing now giving single-digit returns, investors are looking to diversify their holdings and exploit opportunities from the pandemic-induced dislocations, such as rapid adoption of digital modes of business, and a call for self-sufficiency & self-reliance,” ASK Group MD & CEO Sunil Rohokale said.

With the government's focus on Atmanirbhar Bharat and PLI schemes aimed at lowering dependence on imports and boosting exports, this fund aims to invest in beneficiaries of varied sectors including speciality chemicals, footwear, diagnostics, niche digital technologies, etc, a press release said.

The term of the scheme is seven years with two years of lock-in from the final closing and will be targeting to raise investments from high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and UHNI aiming for consistent wealth creation over the long term. The fund is targeting to raise Rs 1,000 crore.

ASK Investment Managers Limited is a leading asset and wealth management company, primarily catering to the HNI and UHNI markets in India.

“Many international companies are looking at a China plus One strategy and several Indian industries stand to benefit from this situation require capital infusion,” Rohokale said.

As per recent SEBI data, AIFs saw commitments worth Rs 82,228 crore in FY21 from institutions, family offices and high net-worth individuals who are looking to invest in such opportunities.

Another unique feature of AIF is that it will be first of its kind in the nine-year-old AIF industry to have the entire process of opening accounts and documentation be entirely paperless and hassle-free, the release said.

ASK IM’s platform is enabled for digital signatures using the Aadhaar e-sign platform. It is also integrated with the payment gateway, making the entire process seamless and integrated on a real-time basis with its backend systems. The only pre-requisite being that the investor needs to be CKYC compliant.