Subhas Ramkhelawan

By Ian Gooding

Managing director of Bourse Securities Limited, Subhas Ramkhelawan, has advised the 350 investors in the SavInvest India Asia Fund, which is managed by his company, to have patience as the fund was sure to rebound.

He told the investors at an investment seminar at the Crowne Plaza hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday that he too was concerned that the fund had depreciated by 28 per cent in 2008, but that India and the Asian countries are having higher economic growth rates than other developed counties.

He said the two major problems facing those countries were inflation and high oil prices.

“Where do we go from here?” he asked. “We go confidently. This is our recommendation to you, that you hold on to your units until the market kicks. It will kick higher and faster than some of the more sick economies of the world. Sick economies are those that are unable to register growth in excess of one to one and a half per cent.”

He said that the Indian market was in for a period of pain for the next six months, but his team did not envisage that the Indian market would fall much further.

“The outlook is based on the expectation of oil prices coming down a bit more in the next three to six months, heading towards around the US$100 region,” he said. “With that you will see the bounce in the Indian and Asian economies.”

He said the share price of the fund was $75.98 at the end of August.

Ramkhelawan said that those who invested in the first tranche at US$10 would have a capital appreciation of 17.5 per cent. Those in the second tranche, when the value went down, would still have capital appreciation. But those in the fourth tranche, at US$16.21 would be down by 28 per cent.

He said the fundamentals in India were more sound than those in the rest of the developed world. “So that is the place to be with your investments,” he said.

The closed end fund would end in November 2012, he said, so there was a lot of time to see a turnaround.

“If you leave here to go anywhere else,” he said. “You could be experiencing a lot more financial pain.”

Also addressing shareholders were Vijay Sarda of Prudential ICICI Asset Management, which manages the funds in India and Madree Seebaran, SavInvest manager of investment research, who gave shareholders an overview of the Asian Market.