IndiaNivesh Investment Managers has decided to wind up its portfolio management business due to fallout from the coronavirus, becoming one of the first casualties of the current market meltdown in India.
"IndiaNivesh Investment Managers ... has decided to close its current strategy which is Small Cap (Sprout) due to recent market turmoil and difficult economic circumstances due to ongoing COVID-19 issues," IndiaNivesh said in a statement on Sunday.
The current size of the portfolio management services business, started in March 2015, stood at 600 million rupees ($7.95 million) spread across 190 clients. The company has around 30% cash, including liquid investments in their portfolio, a spokeswoman said.
The company said all investors would be given the option to liquidate their assets and get cash transferred to their bank accounts, or could opt for securities and cash balances being moved to their stock-holding and bank accounts respectively.
The company, part of the IndiaNivesh group, also clarified that only the PMS arm was being wound up and all other financial services including stock broking were operational.
IndiaNivesh was founded by Indian chartered accountant Rajesh Nuval.
Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday announced a three week-lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus with the country seeing a rise in cases which reached 979 on Sunday, including 25 deaths.
At close on Friday, India's two market indices were down nearly 30% this year and had recorded six straight weeks of losses.
