Mavericks like Musk make moonshots happen: Aashish Somaiyaa

One of the richest men in the world, Musk has been known as a controversial CEO who oversaw huge lay-offs and policy changes that impacted Twitter’s work culture.

In a candid conversation with Moneycontrol, Somaiyaa holds forth on Musk, the worst corporate governance nightmare of 2022, his favourite book, and more.

Rapid Fire Round With White Oak Capital Management’s CEO

Interviewer: If not the CEO of a $5 billion company, what would you have been?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Maybe a $3 or $7 billion company, but I would still be doing what I'm doing.

Interviewer: How many books do you read in a year? What is your favourite financial book that you'd recommend everybody to read?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: I read a lot, but I'm a slow reader. So maybe two books a month. I'm reading a very interesting book called How To Invest. The title is misleading. It's a book by David Rubenstein, who's the founder of The Carlyle Group. The whole book is about 19 to 20 different interviews. These are leading people in different asset classes and different fund management genres.

Interviewer: One big mistake you think investors make while investing and should avoid at all points?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Bailing out too quickly. You can have seen this in the past year. When people do not clock good returns, they become impatient. Bailing out quickly is a big mistake.

Interviewer: What did you get wrong in 2022?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: There has been quite a violent sector rotation, but I don't think it will last.

Interviewer: Any specific ones that you want to talk about?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Quite surprised by the speculation in oil, metal, commodities, and PSUs. It's all related to the war. Generally, when there’s a high beta rally, small- and midcaps outperform largecaps. But what is surprising is that there is a high beta rally with all these sectors going up, but still small- and midcaps underperformed largecaps, which is very unusual.

Interviewer: One quote you bear in mind while managing your investors’ money?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: It's attributed to the famous American philosopher F. Scott Fitzgerald. He says that the test of first-rate intelligence is your ability to hold two contradictory ideas in your mind and still retain your ability to function. I said that because everybody thinks life is black or white. In stock markets, for example, everybody thinks things are right or wrong, good or bad. That's not true, everything has shades of grey.

Interviewer: Your five stock bets for 2023.

Aashish P Sommaiyaa:

I don't invest in equity myself, I invest in White Oak funds. But my sense is non-lending financials, consumer discretionary, and midcap IT.

Interviewer: Something that you want to stay away from in 2023?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Stay away from macro forecasts  because forecasting macros is impossible. Even if you are a good astrologer, how markets will react to macros is difficult to predict. So stay away from macro bets.

Interviewer: Which was a bigger financial governance nightmare: Nykaa’s bonus issue, or the Paytm buyback?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: I think Paytm buyback. I think it's a bit premature in the journey.

Interviewer: Your favourite CEO?

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Rajeev Jain from Bajaj finance. I think he's quite inspirational.

Interviewer: Your views on  Elon Musk as Twitter’s CEO.

Aashish P Sommaiyaa: Musk has made it very interesting. I respect all mavericks because the world can be changed by mavericks, the world is never changed by people who operate within defined boundaries. Again, he's a guy who's very inspirational, and he's making lots of things very interesting.

There are many things which are happening in the world, whether it’s going to space, taking the internet to people on the dark side of the digital divide, or new forms of energy. Mavericks like him make moonshots happen.

What’s your New Year resolution?

My New Year resolution is not to make resolutions. But I am going to lose a lot of weight this year.