Nuvama to Rebalance Long-Short Strategies Under SIF, Aims for Broader Investor Base

Nuvama Wealth Management to Migrate Rs 3,000 Crore in Assets to New Specialised Investment Fund Framework

Nuvama Wealth Management is planning to migrate nearly Rs 3,000 crore of long-short strategy assets from its Category III Alternative Investment Funds into the newly created Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) framework once it receives its mutual fund licence, expected within the next few weeks.

The company, which manages about Rs 12,800 crore across its asset management platform as of March 31, 2026, intends to launch SIF versions of both its Equity Long-Short and Multi-Asset Long-Short strategies and gradually transition assets over a two-year period. This move could become one of the earliest examples of a large, established alternatives platform transitioning existing products into the SIF structure, highlighting the growing appeal of the new vehicle among wealth and asset managers.

According to Ajay Vora, management at Nuvama, the company views the transition to the Specialised Investment Fund framework as a significant growth opportunity. Subject to regulatory approvals and operational readiness, Nuvama plans to launch both strategies under the SIF framework.

Read also: SEBI Approves Listings for Oravel Stays and Four Other Companies

Nuvama currently has around Rs 3,000 crore of assets housed in two Category III AIF strategies, including roughly Rs 1,800 crore in its Equity Long-Short strategy and Rs 1,200 crore in its Multi-Asset Long-Short strategy. The planned migration underscores what many in the industry increasingly view as the biggest advantage of the SIF framework: tax efficiency.

According to Nuvama, moving from the Category III AIF structure could improve investors' net portfolio returns by 200-250 basis points. The economics are compelling for both investors and asset managers. For investors, the SIF structure offers a more favourable tax treatment than Category III AIFs. For fund managers, it provides an opportunity to bring alternative-style strategies to a broader pool of affluent investors while retaining significant portfolio flexibility.

Nuvama also enjoys a potential advantage over many early entrants to the category. While several fund houses have already launched SIF offerings, most are building track records from scratch. Nuvama, by contrast, plans to bring strategies with an existing performance history and approximately Rs 3,000 crore of assets into the structure. Its flagship Equity Long-Short strategy has generated around 600 basis points of annualised outperformance over the past five years, according to the company, while the Multi-Asset Long-Short strategy invests across equities, fixed income, REITs, InvITs, commodities and special situations.

Read also: Indian Market Reaction to RBI's Cautious Stance

The migration could therefore provide Nuvama with a ready-made product suite to market under the SIF framework rather than requiring investors to evaluate entirely new strategies. More broadly, the move may offer an early indication of how the SIF ecosystem evolves. While the framework was initially viewed as a way for mutual funds to launch alternative-style products, industry executives increasingly expect established Category III AIF managers to use it as a lower-cost, more tax-efficient vehicle for long-short and absolute-return strategies. If successful, Nuvama's transition could provide a template for other alternatives managers considering a similar shift.