Veteran CIO S Naren’s remark on SIP risk in small and midcaps allegedly deleted, say social media users

Speaking at the IFA Galaxy 2025, an event organized by a Chennai-based mutual fund association, the veteran fund manager advised caution regarding SIP investments in mid- and small-cap stocks. “We think it is a clear time to take out lock, stock, and barrel from small- and mid-caps,” he said.

ICICI Pru AMC's CIO S Naren's recent comments at a distributor conference - which did not gone down well with some market participants - continues to create controversy, with some social media users pointing out that the original video had been removed, and re-uploaded on the IFA Galaxy's YouTube channel, after the speech evoked strong reactions.

Some users X platform said the original video was pulled down and edited to remove the 'controversial' parts, and then re-uploaded.

Speaking at the IFA Galaxy 2025, an event organized by a Chennai-based mutual fund association, the veteran fund manager had advised caution regarding SIP investments in mid and small-cap shares. “We think it is a clear time to take out lock, stock, and barrel from small- and mid-caps,” Naren had said in his address.

A tweet shared by a social media user carried the portions that many claim  have been edited out.

"The entire risk is now borne by you (the distributor) and the investor - 100%. So, the entire problem of any loss will also be borne by you, 100%. "

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"I do not believe that this is the time to invest in small and mid-cap SIPs. But I am unable to convince my sales colleagues. I tried my best but failed miserably. But I believe that this is the time to stop SIPs in small and mid-caps because they are so overvalued."

"If you do an SIP in an overvalued class, only you are to be blamed. If you do an SIP in an overvalued asset class like China was three years back or Indian equity was in 1994 or 2007-2008, you have only yourself to blame. You cannot blame SIP."

"I don't think that either the investor or wealth manager is really thinking at this point of time that all risks are being taken by you all in this room (distributor) and I tried to spend the last three, six months trying to explain that the risk is with you, not with the mutual fund alone.  Because the mutual fund will tell you that you are giving money to invest in a small cap, so you are taking the risk. Not the AMC."

ICICI Pru AMC has refused to comment on this speech by their CIO S Naren.

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