Fund Manager
Pankaj Murarka is the Founder of Renaissance Investment Managers, an Alternate Investment Manager founded in 2016. Pankaj has over 25 years of experience in equity research & fund management with stellar track record of performance over his professional career. Prior to this, Pankaj was associated with Axis Mutual Fund for almost a decade as CIO, managing over $5bn in Indian equities. He was part of the team that set up Axis Mutual Fund in 2009 and over the years built it into one of the leading AMC in India on back of excellent investment performance. He was responsible for the performance of all the equity mutual funds of Axis AMC and during his stint as CIO, Axis AMC was recognized as the Best Equity Fund House of the year by Outlook Money for 2014. He was also awarded as Best Fund Manager - Runner up Award for Axis Midcap Fund by Outlook Money in 2014. The fund delivered a CAGR return of 24% (2011-2015) significantly outperforming the benchmark and was a top decile fund for 2012 & 2013. It ranked No.1 performing mutual fund in India across all funds in 2014 on 3 year basis. Axis Small Cap Fund - Best performing Small Cap Fund in 2014 with 84.3% returns. Some of the other funds managed by him included Axis Equity Fund, Axis Focused 25 Fund and SISF- India Opportunities Fund. He was also recognized by Outlook Money as a Leading Fund Manager with 5 years of track record of consistent performance in the year 2015. Pankaj has also worked with Merrill Lynch as India Portfolio Manager for Strategic Investment Group. He was the Portfolio Manager for the Long Only and the Long Short Fund. The fund did incredibly well including during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. He was also part of the set up team at Rare Enterprises. During his stint with Rare Enterprises (Investment Office of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala), he has instrumental in making various investments for the firm which have done exceedingly well over the years and delivered strong returns. He also represented the firm’s interest on board of various companies advising them on capital allocation. Pankaj has also worked with Motilal Oswal and with UTI AMC in early years. During his career he has consistently delivered superior risk adjusted returns for over 25 years in public markets by following the Investment Philosophy of SQGARPTM (Sustainable Quality Growth at Reasonable Price).TM He has also been instrumental in executing various PIPE and Private Equity investments in his career. Pankaj is a rank holder Chartered Accountant from ICAI with all India merit. Pankaj is an avid marathoner and has completed 12 half marathons and 2 ultra-half marathons / endurathon