Parag Parikh, promoter of PPFAS Mutual Fund, dies in a crash

Moneylife Digital Team 04 May 2015

Parag Parikh, well known investment expert and founder of PPFAS died on Sunday in a two-vehicle crash at Omaha the US while on a visit to hear investment guru Warren Buffet

Parag Parikh, well known investment expert and founder of Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services (PPFAS) and PPFAS Mutual Fund, died in a two-vehicle crash on Sunday in midtown Omaha.

According to media reports from the US, the 60-year Parikh died at the Nebraska Medical Centre, while his wife Geeta is in a critical condition with head and chest injuries.

The Parikhs were believed to be travelling along with two other employees of the group Rajeev Thakkar and Raunak Onkar. Report suggest that the Volkswagen Jetta they were driving collided with a Chevrolet pickup before 7am on Sunday where they were on their way to the airport. All four were in Omaha to attend Berkshire's shareholder meeting, an annual pilgrimage that many value investors around the world like to undertake.

Last year, Mr Parikh, one of the foremost behavioural investment gurus in India, surrendered his broking licence for starting his asset management company (AMC) and morphed PPFAS into PPFAS AMC.

Even with PPFAS, Mr Parikh always challenged the mutual fund industry with his transparency and accountability. Last year in November, PPFAS MF held its first unit holders meet in Mumbai, a first in the mutual fund industry. During the meet, after presenting their investment philosophy, both Mr Parikh and Mr Thakkar, Chief Investment Officer, Associate Director and Equity Fund Manager at PPFAS Mutual Funds, replied to all queries from unit holders and distributors, explaining rationale behind selecting various scrips for the portfolio.

PPFAS had instilled some amount of trust by providing accountability to their investors. In Moneylife's analysis of portfolio management schemes (PMS), Mr Parikh's PMS was among the best. Unfortunately, their mutual fund scheme, PPFAS Long Term Value, had not been among the best in comparison with other schemes. Many stocks were not the best in their class and hence were valued available cheap. Returns from them are unlikely to be high, especially since these stocks have not been able to prove themselves over multiple business and market cycles. However, this scheme was designed for the long-term and it would be too early to comment on the performance. In fact, Mr Thakkar mentioned that they were not looking to be among the best, their only aim is to provide investors a decent return over the long-term.

Mr Parikh has written two books, "Stocks to Riches - Insights on Investor Behaviour" published by Tata McGraw-Hill in 2006 and "Value Investing and Behavioural Finance - Insights into Indian Stock Market Realities" in 2009.

Mr Parikh has also been a strong supporter of Moneylife Foundation's financial literacy work and has also attended talks organised by it.

Comments

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SUBRAMANIAM GANESAN

10 years ago

Really a Sad News!! Not a desired end for a person like Mr Parikh bhai.. May his soul rest in peace..

Pushpesh Kumar Sharma

10 years ago

Very Sad news. Really Mr Parag Parikh was a genius. though i had never invested with him, i referred to his notes on behavioural finance. he had contributed for some to the outlookmoney also.
As is customary, i would also wish that May! He rest in Eternal Peace, but actually i feel that this is not the end a person like Mr Parag Parikh deserved.
Pushpesh Kumar, Bathinda

Kiran Aggarwal

10 years ago

Sorry to know !!
RIP
It a big vacuum to fill as PPFAS was doing some good work in MF schemes and holding Unit holders meeting .