Franklin Templeton veteran Anand Radhakrishnan set to join Sundaram MF as CEO

Anand Radhakrishnan is set to join Sundaram MF as its CEO around March-April 2024.

Anand Radhakrishnan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Emerging Market Equities – India at Franklin Templeton (FT) India Asset Management Co Ltd, is said to be joining Sundaram AMC as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Two mutual fund industry officials confirmed to Moneycontrol that Sunil Subramaniam, Sundaram AMC’s present CEO, is likely to step down by April 2024, post which Radhakrishnan will take over as the MF’s head. Subramaniam, who is in his early 60s, would most likely retire. An email, phone calls, and a WhatsApp message sent to the communications team at Sundaram AMC went unanswered till publishing time. Radhakrishnan refused to comment.

Although Radhakrishnan has been with FT AMC since 2004, this would be his second stint with Sundaram MF. He was with Sundaram AMC between 1996 and 2004 as its fund manager. Between 2004 and 2006, he managed the Portfolio Management Services (PMS) strategies at FT AMC before shifting over to managing its MF schemes. Franklin Templeton had already announced Radhakrishnan’s resignation in November 2023; his last day is on January 11. Janakiraman Rengaraju, who was earlier the Deputy CIO & senior portfolio manager, has taken over as CIO, Emerging Market Equities- India at FT India AMC, effective December 1, 2023.

Radhakrishnan’s entry in Sundaram AMC as its CEO adds to the niche bunch of fund managers-turned-CEOs, in the Indian AMC industry. Typically, CEOs in the Indian MF industry come from the sales and marketing side, although there has been a fair share of fund managers who go on to become heads of fund houses, too.

Changes in the top deck 

Both FT India and Sundaram MF have been going through subtle changes in the past few years. In January 2021 Sundaram AMC acquired Principal India AMC. Ravi Gopalakrishnan, who was earlier the head of equity funds at Principal AMC, has been heading the equity funds team at Sundaram MF (CIO-equity) ever since. FT India AMC has just come out of its debt fund crisis, after it wound up six of its debt funds in April 2020. With payments being made to investors whose money was stuck in all of those six funds over a period of around three years, the fund house launched its first scheme Franklin India Balanced Advantage Fund in September 2022.

In other developments, Rahul Goswami took over as the head of FT India’s fixed income team on August 1, 2023. Goswami, who returned to the company after 19 years, joined as the CIO and Managing Director of India’s fixed-income business. He took over from Santosh Kamath, who will head the fund house’s newly set up alternatives business.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on June 17, 2023, about Goswami’s new role at FT India and Kamath’s move to the alternatives business.