Suggestions
Kapil Singhal
Finance Executive based in Mumbai
Kapil Singhal is a highly accomplished professional with a rich educational background and extensive experience in finance and investing.
He holds a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and has also completed an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies at the University of Delhi.
With a successful career spanning several renowned organizations, Kapil currently serves as the Managing Partner at True North Co.
Prior to his current role, he held key positions at other esteemed companies, including India Credit Head and Managing Director at KKR & Co. Inc., Fund Manager and Co-Head of Private Debt at Edelweiss Special Opportunities Fund, and Head of India Credit Trading (Private Debt) at Goldman Sachs.
His professional journey also includes roles such as Director of Global Credit Trading - Private Debt at Deutsche Bank, Vice President & Region Head (West) at GE Capital, Vice President at ICICI Bank, and Graduate Trainee Engineer at Tata Motors.
Highlights
One of my favourite authors and my favourite blog : Morgan Housel Simple thoughts expressed so beautifully explained in context of history ! Good read.
"There’s a set of advantages that come from being endowed with resources. There’s another set of advantages that come from starting from scratch. The latter can be sneakingly powerful.!"
https://lnkd.in/da2NfJBE
The Diversification Debate: Indian Pvt Credit
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett famously stated that "You know, we think diversification is—as practiced generally—makes very little sense for anyone that knows what they’re doing...it is a protection against ignorance."
He said in the context of equity investing and he is damn right ! It pays to take concentrated bets in the circle of your competence when doing equity. One great & large deal can hide a couple of poor deals or may be more. In Venture Capital, I heard a term recently called “a dragon deal” – a deal which returns the entire fund corpus – & you see where I am headed with this !
However, in equity too, please think of Buffett’s comment in context of the environment he is operating –strong US economy, governance is top notch, companies are stronger, he has access to permanent capital and he can sip a coke all day long and live with a volatility in his portfolio as long as fundamentals of the company remain strong. He has the luxury of living through cycles without redemption pressures or limited fund life. If you have the same set up, please go ahead !
Therefore, even in Pvt Equity funds or VC funds or any limited life equity funds too, the argument in favour of concentrated bets does not hold. The pressure of fund’s limited life can force you to exit your largest position without it playing out fully. Buffett has no such pressures.
In debt, where one gets the same returns every year & taking an outsized bet on a deal does not reward you any better (unlike equity), it makes no sense at all to take concentrated bets; Combine that with not so great collateral enforcement regime in India, the argument gets even stronger in favour of diversification.
Therefore, In Pvt Credit Funds (and in fixed income category in general), there can never be over diversification.
It really boils down to practicality of diversification – how many deals can you do in a limited deployment period, - how large is your opportunity set - Execution difficulty – There is no exchange like in listed equity for you to go and click a button and buy a position in Pvt Credit- every deal is a primary & curated deal ! - Also there is no secondary trading and you don’t buy/sell your debt positions (“Illiquids” in India are truly illiquid !)
On the whole, therefore left to me, I would always do “more deals” than “less deals” in Indian Pvt Credit.
#True North Co #IndiaprivateCredit #Diversificationinpvtcredit
