Fund Manager's Next Big Bets

Samir Arora,Helios Capital

Insurance,broking, banking,media,defence and asset management companies. He likes to invest in companies which are competing with the government or operating in areas previously reserved only for state-run companies. There are two reasons for this: The first is that government-run sectors are usually poorly serviced, and hence there is a pent-up demand; the second is that govt. companies,typically are not strategic thinkers who know how to fend of growing competition from the private sector. In power, he prefer equipment suppliers.

Madhusudan Kela,Reliance Mutual Fund

The prices of agricultural land have soared.Many people will be encouraged to sell a portion of their land to cash in on the leaping prices. The money from the sale,most of the time, will be ploughed back into the rest of their land holding to improve output. Translation: they will invest in better technology,farm equipment,high-quality seeds and irrigation systems. Giving another boost to the rural story is the growth of the organized retail in India: supermarkets are buying agricultural produce from farmers forcing the companies dealing with agriculture to get more organized. The key beneficiaries of this change will be companies which can help in getting this sector organized,espicially in terms of supply chain linkages. Winners here will include companies involved in warehousing, logistcs, deep refrigeration plants and similar activities. He strongly belives that rural spending is poised for a surge. According to him, fertiliser stocks make a compelling investment case for the long term. He is bullish on Alternative Energy space. One of the biggest benefits is that after swallowing the capital cost, the return on investment can be pretty high because there are no variable costs. He suggests Banks as safe havens this year.

Prashant Jain,HDFC Mutual Fund

"In the next decade, infrastructure could replicate the growth witnessed in telecom over the past ten years. He believes investment demand will grow atleast twice or thrice as fast as consumption demand over the next few years. The large scale of investments will throw up oppurtinities for three different kinds of players: asset creators, asset financers and asset owners. All infrastructure projects are capital intensive and are typically 70% debt-funded. Local banks will be the dominant providers of debt to these projects and this should materially boost their businesses. "

Source: Outlook Profit