Change of guard: Quant Mutual Fund sees CFO change; Sandeep Tandon says transition planned

Quant Mutual Fund, India's fastest growing Asset Management Company, is facing a SEBI probe.

Quant Mutual Fund said that it has appointed Shashi Kataria as Chief Financial Officer with effect from July 1, in a communication to unitholders. He will replace Harshal Patel, who resigned for ‘personal reasons’.

The change of guard comes after Moneycontrol reported on June 23 that the capital market regulator Sebi had carried out Search and Seizure operation on Quant Mutual Fund on suspected front-running.

CEO and Founder Sandeep Tandon said a CFO change was in the works since February 2024 when the previous CFO resigned.

Quant Mutual Fund said that former CFO Harshal Patel had resigned in January 2024 and served his last day on May 19. The new CFO joined the company on June 10 and was appointed CFO after the board meeting on July 1.

“Harshal Patel tendered his resignation on 19 February, 2024 and the last day of his service with the company was on 19 May, 2024. His last held position was Chief Financial Officer for Quant AMC,” said Quant Mutual Fund in a statement.

Patel joined Quant Mutual Fund in 2016 after completing his articleship in 2015. Over the last 8 years, he had risen in the ranks, starting as a Finance and Accounts Executive in 2016, followed by promotions to manager and senior manager for finance and account. His last role was AVP - Finance and Accounts, a position he had held since 2022.

On June 23, Moneycontrol broke the news that Sebi had carried out Search and Seizure operation on Quant Mutual Fund amid suspected front-running.

Further, the fund house said it appointed the new CFO in June. “Shashi Kataria joined us on 10 June, 2024 and the Board Meeting was convened on 1st July, 2024 and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer, Operations Head and Executive Director of Quant Money Managers Ltd,” it said in the statement.

Also read: Quant Mutual Fund releases answers to FAQs from investors after Sebi probe

Earlier, Quant Mutual Fund, India's fastest growing Asset Management Company, said in an email FAQ noted that the SEBI investigation was a regular ongoing process by the regulator to collect data and analyse it. SEBI is yet to release any official information on the action.

It was recently reported that the AMC saw its first net outflows of 2024 in the last week of June, as per a report from mutual fund website Value Research. This ends a six-month streak of net inflows and comes almost a month after reports of the SEBI investigation. Quant's flagship Small Cap Fund, which manages Rs 21,423 crore, saw the highest outflows. In all, investors net withdrew Rs 2800 across schemes. Of this, around 28 percent were from the Small Cap Fund.