Welcome to the very first episode of MF Chronicles with Vikaas M Sachdeva.
In this debut episode, I sit down with Samir Arora, Founder of Helios Capital, to explore a decade that changed everything: 1995 to 2005.What stands out in this conversation isn’t just Samir’s track record, but his honesty. He speaks openly about arriving in India in ’93 with curiosity, stumbling into fund management almost by accident, and learning to navigate a market where price discovery was guesswork, data was scarce, and relationships mattered more than terminals.
Together, we deep dive into:
- Why Alliance Capital chose India and how its surprising joint venture with UTI led to UTAM
- How Samir built an investing approach that beat the market by 32% for eight straight years
- His clever brokerage-saving “hack” in the 90s that gave him an unexpected edge
- What the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–98 looked like from inside the fund house
- The origins of iconic products like the Alliance 95 Fund and the India Liberalisation Fund
- How inflation, NAV spells, market sentiment, and even office competitiveness shaped the era
- The difference between investing in the 90s and today — from transparency to SEBI norms to the rise of thematic funds
Watch the full conversation and step into the formative years of India’s mutual fund industry.
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To know more, click here - https://linktr.ee/vikaasmsachdeva
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📌 Disclaimer: All visuals and graphics used in this video belong to their respective owners. Credits are mentioned on-screen wherever applicable.
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Chapters:
00:00 Presented By
00:05 Trailer
01:55 Disclaimer
01:58 Introduction
03:20 Arriving in India: Samir’s 1993 Beginning
04:30 Why Alliance Entered India
05:15 UTI × Alliance: The Birth of UTAM
07:33 What Investing Looked Like in the 90s
11:23 How Samir Outperformed the Market for 8 Straight Years
13:02 The Asian Crisis of ’97–98 & Other Shocks
17:01 Inside the India Liberalisation Fund
17:20 Inflation Challenges: Samir’s Take
18:51 How the Alliance 95 Fund Was Born
21:47 NAV Spells & Market Turbulence
22:24 Views on India’s Liberalisation
23:18 Price Discovery: 90s vs Today
25:05 The Rise of Thematic Funds
28:36 More on NAV Spells
29:16 Strategy Behind the Frontline Fund
31:18 Mutual Respect Among Competitors
32:51 Lessons from the Dot-Com Bubble
39:12 Samir’s Competitive Edge
39:42 The 200% NAV Year: 1998–99
40:33 Meeting Mohandas Pai
41:04 IFAs, Banks & The Distribution Landscape
43:02 SEBI’s Push for Transparency
46:08 Setting Industry Standards
46:49 Q&A – Part 1
48:55 Q&A – Part 2
51:22 Wrap-Up
52:09 End Credits
