What role is asset management playing in keeping businesses afloat?

Even the top asset management companies in India cannot provide a solution to you, if you do not seek to invest your money in a responsible way. For the flourishing of your business, you cannot rely on just liquid savings that are dying to come out from your bank account. You will have to cautiously invest that money into something more meaningful that will give you the benefits in future. We are talking about investing in assets. An asset is a priced possession that can be redeemed or lied back on in worst case scenarios for the business. If you consider the current situation of COVID-19, you will notice that most business all over the world are going to take a hit in their earnings for a pretty long time. This in turn is going to affect their long-term savings as well. But on the contrary, those businesses that were far sighted for any such kind of business calamity to arise, had already planned their investments in assets. These assets can prove to be life jacket, if not a life boat to the business that’s just going down. Bigger businesses too are taking great hits and these hits are in hundreds and thousands of crores. Naturally, the focus on ESG funds in India and around the world would be shaken right now. However, the companies should as a moral obligation and duty, not forget about it. ESG funds are the Environmental, Social and Government funds, that help a business gain credibility and gives the investors a peek into how the business is being carried out, whether or not ethics are being followed and if it would be fruitful for them to invest in the business now. Although the top most asset management companies require their clients to bring in big business, there are other companies that deal with midsized businesses too.

Investment in mutual funds

We have all heard about mutual funds some or the other time. we were either taught about it in our economic class, got call from a bank’s call centre to invest in them, read about it in the newspaper and some magazines, heard it as a radio jingle or watched it on TV with the usual “Mutual funds are subject to market risks…”.  But what exactly are these funds that people keep talking about? Are there any other funds that are available to the business to invest in? let’s find out today.

First of all, mutual funds are no second to assets. How much money you invest in the mutual fund depends completely on you. It is like a pool of money from many investors (small to big sized) which is invested in some fluctuating market players like shares, bonds and securities, money market instruments and so on. This is not just a single fund in itself. There are seven different types of mutual funds too which are available. 

Long short fund is also one of the rest. Others include equity funds, money market funds, fixed income funds, index funds, balanced funds, and speciality funds.

For businesses, there are ESG funds, that a business invests into, for better functioning of their staff, establish strong relations with the buyers and suppliers, and also to ascertain investors or potential investors that every transaction that is being carried out in the business is only through ethical means.

In the long run, funds become a huge asset for any individual or a company that owns a business. Although their value hugely depends on the status of the market. For example, due to COVID-19, most businesses are seeing their shares to be down, as a result, the current valuation of mutual funds isn’t that great a picture. But eventually, when markets start to rise, this picture will slowly change and show benefits too.

What after COVID-19?

The investment banking companies in India and all around the world are facing a large problem of COVD-19. The pandemic has hit not just the health care around the world but has largely affected the economy around the world. Countries having to take loans from the International Monetary Funds as an extra aid to the health care facilities and to keep the economy floating for a bit. With tons of businesses in lockdown, most people aren’t even getting paid. There is no cash flowing in the economies. In such a scenario, there can’t be any focus on ESG funds in India or anywhere else in the world. 

Once the lockdown if lifted gradually, it is going to be a great uphill task for investment banking companies to get their client’s business back on track. For a long time, there won’t really be mergers or acquisitions, since most businesses (if the giant ones), would be looking to sustain themselves and get most out of their present human resource. With such great recession foreseen in near future, the investment banking companies are going to have to find new ways of actually helping their clients in getting through these financially tough times. A pandemic that the world did not see the decades, has hit business corporations all around the world. A lot of industries are going to be vastly affected in the near future. Industries such as travel and tourism, hotel, entertainment are going to be some of the worst hit. With people reluctant to travel and go anywhere out, it is going to be extremely difficult and a long journey towards normalising all of the above once again. In such times, the businesses and the business owners will have to keep a lot of patience and brace themselves for the blow that is bound to come their way.

Your role as a client to asset management companies

In what way does an asset management company help their client in strengthening and expanding their financial portfolio. As the name suggested, an asset management company helps the client in achieving their financial goals over a period of time. To hire asset management companies, the company needs to meet certain fund expectations first. There is no restriction on the size of the firm, but definitely a bar for the amount of money that should be invested in it. This could involve existing property, mutual funds, hedge funds, bonds and shares. Anything that fetches money and interest on the same in the long run can be viewed as a potential growth asset. Also, while hiring an asset management company, the business should certainly look for the past records of the firm. 

The client portfolio and their performance would give you an idea on whether you should go ahead with the said company or not. it is also advisable to remember that you give the asset management company some time, before it starts to show you good results. Investment is a tricky business. Returns cannot be expected in a jiffy. Certain amount of patience needs to be maintained from your part as a client or a business owner as well. But this does not mean that you hand in the entire reins to the manager and not keep a check on where the money goes. Although trust plays a huge role in a good client and firm relationship, but keeping y our eyes open and keeping yourself informed about your money’s movement is important too. if you think your business is ready to go for an investment or to expand the boundaries of your investment, then you should definitely go for an asset management company. Having a strong backbone of assets is very important in any kind of business. Markets are volatile and assets give a security.

Investment banking and wealth management in India

When any business flourishes, we see that it looks to expand with all the profits it makes. But before expanding, it is important for the business owner to think of possibilities of good investment. Investments help you garner stability for your business. With the markets fluctuating all the time, we never know when our profits or income flow could see a dip. That is when the savings and investments come into use. 

For big giants in the business, investment banking firms in India provide some great services to expand their horizons of investments in assets. Assets add to the credibility of the business and proves the business’s ability to take care of the liabilities if any. Once this is taken care of, one may also seek help from the wealth management firms in the city. Wealth management firms are different from the typical asset management ones. 

Wealth management firms help the businesses in their day to day activities such as tax payment on the current assets, filing them, taking care of legal assistance. It is majorly for high net worth businesses and individuals. Wealth management is an aspect that makes a business what it is. When your business is assigned as wealth manager, he or she needs to study every bit of your business, which includes an account of assets and liabilities, and the aim of reaching the set goal. 

One needs practice caution while choosing wealth management firms for their businesses, because after all, we are dealing with a huge amount of money on a daily basis, and we of course, do not want to risk that. There is also a necessity for you to do a little background check before hiring. You can gain reviews of study the other clients that the firm might have had in the past and find out their experiences.