Having started as a retail banker with ANZ Grindlays Bank, Vishal Prabhakar has handled HNI banking with Standard Chartered Bank and IDBI Bank before moving over to financial services to learn equity investing, commodities, forex and investment advisory. An accountancy graduate from the Calcutta University and a management graduate in finance and financial management services from ICFAI University, Prabhakar spent more than 20 years in banking and financial services, having seen, during this period, the emergence of mutual funds, digitalisation of equity trading, wealth management and Algo trading, among others. He is currently vice-president, Stewart & Mackertich Wealth Management Ltd, an integrated wealth advisory and equity broking house, catering to FIIs, banks, corporate, HNI and retail clientele. Prior to this, Prabhakar had stints at Motilal Oswal, Anand Rathi, Emkay and Trustline Securities.
Prabhakar thinks it is important for him to take ownership of the business, have a vision of what needs to be done and distinguish between the essential and the non-essential and concentrate his energies on the priorities of an assignment.
His investment philosophy has been simple. “I look at the fundamental future of the sector in which a firm operates, the track record and integrity of the management and industries that will be able to handle disruption and that are likely to grow organically with strong balance sheets,” says Prabhakar. He draws his inspiration from books like The Aggressive Conservative Investor by Martin Whitman and Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, among a host of others.
He believes that emerging markets have enjoyed a strong tailwind over the last two years despite global wars, terrorism, the Trump entry into the White House and Brexit. Therefore, other than the North Korean imbroglio, which might push investors into safe haven options, he does not foresee much of a difference going ahead.
According to him, the market has run up to a historic high and a cooling down is inevitable but it’s more of a ‘buy on dips’ market as the current valuations are too high for a meaningful entry.
