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First Water is clear in its approach.
Value-driven, concentrated
and India-focused.

First Water is clear in its approach.
Value-driven, concentrated
and India-focused.

Investment philosophy

  • “There is no finish-line”. We are constantly going under the hood the tyres of our portfolio and testing the thesis to see if our key investee companies not only deserve to be there but whether their weightages are appropriate.
  • We are relentless in our pursuit of new opportunities. We regularly review different sectors and stocks to see if any have been overlooked by the market.
  • We believe that stock selection is only part of the process to create alpha. Other aspects that need to be considered include position-sizing and time invested. Though we believe in value, we don’t typically look for cigar butts, but for companies that also have growth or an inflection/catalyst that will unlock their value.
  • Equally important is intrinsic value maximization at a portfolio level and not just the value of individual names. In order to enhance returns, our approach is driven by regularly reviewing the risk-reward of each stock and redeploying capital.
  • In our pursuit of alpha, we look to add when we believe upside has been increased or trim where the share price has gone ahead of its intrinsic value.
  • Our philosophy is governed by the belief that market values shall converge to intrinsic values over a period of time. Our preferred time frame is around 5-7 years to allow our investment decisions to play out.
  • Our focus is India, which is an economy that we believe has a long way to go.

First Water focuses primarily
on Indian Equities

KEY THEMES

Our key investment themes are:

  • High real barriers to entry i.e. capital intensive businesses.
  • ‘Out of favour’ and overlooked businesses, including cyclical plays.
  • Significant gap between market value (market price) and our assessment of intrinsic value.
  • Diversified businesses, mis-pricing sum of parts.

Some of the industries that we tend to focus on are those that have a balance sheets, moats and are part of the building blocks of a rising economy such as:

  • Manufacturing
  • Industrials
  • Commodities
  • Utilities
  • Consumer discretionary
Some of the industries that we tend to focus on are basic, industrial and those with a balance sheet. The reasons being is that they are easier to understand and do not require specialist knowledge. This allows us to be on a level playing field with other investors in these sectors. A balance sheet allows us to understand and triangulate their performance and capabilities to it and provides us with some anchor and insight to a company’s intrinsic value.

Industries we tend to focus on

Manufacturing

Industrials

Commodities

Utilities

Consumer discretionary

Meet the team

We have a battle-hardened team led by one of India’s marquee investors. Together we bring deep experience in the Indian arena both from a research and operations perspective to ensure good and responsible practice is being followed.

Ricky Kirpalani

Managing Partner
and Chief Investment Advisor

Arun Chulani

Business Development
and Operations

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CONTACT

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Welcome to First Water

First Water has established this site to provide information about their respective investment advisory activities. Nothing on this site (as explained in Terms and Conditions) constitutes as investment advice. You should rely solely on your own investigations regarding any investment opportunity and should seek competent professional advice.

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