P Krishnan
One of the longest-serving fund managers in Indian equities, who ran India's maiden private-sector mutual fund scheme in the early 1990s and then spent nineteen years selling India to Nordic investors from Norway. He is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for equity asset management at Spark Asia Impact Managers, and APMI records him as the named fund manager on all three of the firm's India@75 approaches — though the firm's own public-equities page presents only two of them.
Is P worth your time?
A three-decade career applied to a Chennai boutique inside a larger group. Parameswara Iyer Krishnan is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for equity asset management at Spark Asia Impact Managers Private Limited, formerly Spark Fund Managers, the equity asset-management arm of the Spark Capital group and a SEBI-registered portfolio manager since 14 November 2018 under INP000006235. He started at SBI Mutual Fund in 1990, became the first portfolio manager of the scheme that is now Franklin India Bluechip, and spent nineteen years with Carlson Funds and DNB Asset Management in Norway before joining Spark Capital in 2018. APMI records him as fund manager on three India@75 approaches: a growth-at-a-reasonable-price flexicap book of about thirty stocks, a core-and-satellite book of about twenty-five, and an Active Alpha strategy running since July 2023. One qualifier before the record: the firm's own public-equities page presents only the first two.
Investors who want a concentrated, valuation-aware Indian equity book run by someone who has managed money through more than one full cycle, and who value a process that is written down — a focus list, a stated stock count, an explicit position cap and a defined horizon — over a personality. It suits a two-to-three-year minimum horizon, which is what the firm itself states, and someone who will judge the India@75 record from 2019 rather than the career highlights from the 1990s. It suits an investor comfortable with a single decision-maker and no published successor, and comfortable that the third approach on the register is one the firm does not present at all. If you want published fee terms you can compare before a meeting, you will not get them here.
- APMI's fund-manager field on all three approaches carries pk@sparkfund.in, a two-letter initials alias. We read it as a personal address by matching Spark's naming convention, not because the address says so on its face.
- He is the only investment professional the firm names on the India@75 strategies, with no published co-manager or successor.
- All three approaches are benchmarked to the Nifty 50 TRI, a large-cap index, while the books hold meaningful mid- and small-cap weight.
- Core and Satellite's assets fell from ₹373.5 crore in November 2025 to ₹288.53 crore on APMI in July 2026.
About P Krishnan
Parameswara Iyer Krishnan is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for equity asset management at Spark Asia Impact Managers Private Limited, the Chennai firm SEBI registered as a portfolio manager on 14 November 2018 under INP000006235, and he runs the India@75 strategies. He is also the firm's registered Principal Officer.
He began at SBI Mutual Fund in 1990 on India's first bank-sponsored mutual fund scheme, then became the first portfolio manager of India's maiden private-sector scheme, Kothari Pioneer Bluechip, now Franklin India Bluechip. He then spent nineteen years with Carlson Funds and DNB Asset Management in Norway, building an India and emerging-markets franchise for Nordic investors and covering China, Taiwan, Korea and ASEAN. He joined Spark Capital in 2018. He holds a B.E. in computer science and a PGDM from IIM Bangalore.
Career
- 2018 – present
Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer, Equity Asset Management, Spark Asia Impact Managers Private Limited
Joined Spark Capital in 2018, the year the equity asset-management arm received its SEBI portfolio-manager registration. He is presented as the portfolio manager of the India@75 strategies on the firm's own strategy pages, and is the firm's registered Principal Officer.
- c. 1998 – 2017
Carlson Funds and DNB Asset Management, Norway
Nineteen years with a Scandinavian fund management house, building an India and emerging-markets franchise for Nordic investors. The firm records the Asian Small Cap Fund growing from USD 10 million to over USD 1.2 billion with 29% compounded annual returns from 1999 to 2007, and the DNB India Fund from USD 3 million to USD 150 million.
- 1993 – 1994
First portfolio manager, Kothari Pioneer Bluechip Fund (now Franklin India Bluechip)
India's maiden private-sector mutual fund scheme. The firm records it as ranking best in its category during 1993-94.
- 1990 – 1992
SBI Mutual Fund
Began his career on India's first bank-sponsored mutual fund scheme, in the formative years of the domestic fund management industry.
- education
B.E. in Computer Science; PGDM from IIM Bangalore
As recorded on the firm's own strategy pages.
Six principles
Growth at a reasonable price, always
The firm's own words. Growth is the target and the price paid is the constraint, applied identically across listed equity, credit and private positions.
Price-value gaps, not momentum
The search starts with mispriced assets — out-of-favour segments, misread trends, or internal change inside a company — rather than with what is already working.
The mispricing must be sustainable
Tactical gaps are explicitly rejected. The process looks for trends expected to matter six to eighteen months out and longer, which is what makes the position worth underwriting.
A focus list, then a hard cut
Deep analysis produces a rolling list of forty to sixty stocks; the Chief Investment Officer then selects fifteen to thirty. The narrowing is the decision, and it sits with one person.
Position size is the risk control
Higher conviction takes a bigger weight, but a single name is capped at 10% at investment in Flexicap and 15% in Core and Satellite, and no leverage or derivatives are used.
Rotate rather than hold on
Flexicap scales mid and small caps up when valuations are compelling and reinforces large caps when leaders have the tailwind; Core and Satellite trims satellite weights once price discovery is largely done.
The call that shows the method working
Named by the firm on two books — and named on all three at APMI
Spark Asset Management's own strategy pages for both India@75 books carry a section headed 'Meet the Portfolio Manager', with P. Krishnan named under the title Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer. The published process is explicit about where his decision rights sit: research produces a focus list of forty to sixty stocks, and 'the CIO selects 15-30 stocks from which a portfolio is constructed'. The firm's own regulatory-information page confirms the licence behind it — Spark Asia Impact Managers Private Limited, CIN U65929TN2018PTC123119, SEBI portfolio-manager registration INP000006235, effective 14 November 2018, perpetual until surrendered.
The Association of Portfolio Managers in India records the same name as fund manager on each of three India@75 approaches as at 31 July 2026, including Active Alpha, which the firm's own public-equities page does not present. We read that as real per-approach attribution rather than a repeated compliance entry, but the evidence here is thinner than we would like and it is worth saying exactly how thin. The contact slot on all three approaches carries pk@sparkfund.in — a two-letter initials alias on the firm's former domain, not a name you can read off the address. We judge it personal by convention rather than on its face: across the Spark registrations on APMI's member register, the function mailboxes are explicitly labelled as such — this entity's Compliance Officer sits at eam.compliance@sparkcapital.in and the group's private-wealth arm at pwm.compliance@sparkcapital.in — while the individuals are addressed as rahul.j@, deepan.k@ and anupam.m@. The initials alias belongs to the second pattern, not the first, and the firm had a labelled compliance mailbox available and did not use it. That is an inference from naming convention, not a statement the address makes about itself. He is also the firm's registered Principal Officer, which means one person holds both roles; that on its own neither strengthens nor weakens the attribution.
What the record also does not do is spread the risk. Two strategies on the website, three on the register, one name on all of them, and no published co-manager or successor.
- 1990 – 1992Begins at SBI Mutual Fund on India's first bank-sponsored mutual fund scheme
- 1993 – 1994First portfolio manager of Kothari Pioneer Bluechip, India's maiden private-sector scheme, now Franklin India Bluechip
- c. 1998 – 2017Nineteen years with Carlson Funds and DNB Asset Management in Norway, covering India and Asian emerging markets
- 14 Nov 2018SEBI grants Spark Asia Impact Managers portfolio-manager registration INP000006235
- 2018Joins Spark Capital to lead the equity asset-management business
- 7 Feb 2019Spark India@75 Flexicap Strategy inception
- 20 Jun 2019Spark India@75 Core and Satellite Strategy inception
- 29 Jul 2023Spark India@75 Active Alpha Strategy inception — recorded on APMI under his name, not presented on the firm's public-equities page
- 31 Jul 2026APMI records him as fund manager on all three India@75 approaches
How the strategies have performed
Trailing returns, net of fees, annualised beyond one year. Shown only when sourced and dated; missing figures are unavailable, never zero.
| Strategy | 1Y | 3Y | 5Y | Since inception |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spark - Core & Satellite | -2.74% | +10.34% | +12.85% | +16.96% |
| Spark - Flexicap | +0.06% | +12.16% | +14.05% | +15.06% |
Your return will not be the headline number. This is the spread of P's 2 tracked strategies' 3-year CAGR. Which strategy you hold, and when you invested, both move your outcome. Strategy-level dispersion, not a record of individual client accounts.
Figures are historical, unaudited and third-party reported, as of 2026-06-30. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.
What to press P on
Bring these to the call.
Get the mandate confirmed in writing
APMI names him fund manager on all three approaches and we read that as real attribution — but the contact slot is a two-letter initials alias, which is the thinnest form the evidence takes. Ask the firm to state, on letterhead, which approaches he is the named portfolio manager of and who else sits on the investment committee.
Two strategies or three?
The website presents Flexicap and Core and Satellite; APMI adds Active Alpha with ₹206.50 crore since July 2023, also under his name. Ask why the third is not published and whether he runs it.
Who runs the money if he stops?
He is in his fourth decade in the business and is the only investment professional the firm names on these books. Ask for the designated successor, the analyst bench behind him, and what clients would be told.
Why Nifty 50 TRI?
Flexicap held 28.5% mid caps and 13.5% small caps in the disclosed mix, but is measured against a large-cap index. Ask for returns against a broader index such as the BSE 500 TRI before you read the outperformance.
Which numbers are Spark's?
The Carlson and DNB figures are his but were earned elsewhere, in other currencies, decades ago. Ask for the India@75 record alone, from February 2019, with the worst drawdown and its recovery period.
Why has Core and Satellite shrunk?
It fell from ₹373.5 crore in November 2025 to ₹288.53 crore on APMI in July 2026. Ask how much of that was market movement and how much was redemptions, and what the client count did over the same period.
Nothing about fees is published
APMI shows 'NA' for both fixed and variable fee structures on all three approaches, and the strategy pages state only that exit load is nil. Ask for the fixed rate, any hurdle and profit share, and the high-water-mark treatment in writing.
How they compare
Comparable managers on the platform, by asset class and category · live fund figures.
| Manager | 1Y | 3Y | AUM | Nyra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunil Kothari Unique - Strategic Fund · PMS | +18.2% | +29.9% | ₹1,517.09 Cr | 8.4 |
| Anubhav Mukherjee Prescientcap-HIGH QUALITY CONSISTENT COMPOUNDERS · PMS | +14.7% | +19.7% | ₹0 Cr | 8.3 |
| Prathmesh Agrawal Asit C Mehta - Ace Multicap · PMS | +10.2% | +24.3% | ₹0 Cr | 8.2 |
| Rishi Gupta Shepherd's Hill - Value Magno · PMS | +5.7% | +20% | ₹0 Cr | 8.1 |
P Krishnan · FAQ
What does P Krishnan run?
Is he formally attributed to those strategies?
Whose record is the long one?
How concentrated are the portfolios?
Has SEBI taken any action against the firm or against him?
What is the minimum investment, and what are the fees?
Considering P's strategy?
We'll pull the current Disclosure Document, the actual fee schedule, and a portfolio-overlap check against what you already own.
PMS Sahi Hai is a distributor (APMI Reg. APRN08358), not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser. APMI registration does not constitute an endorsement. We are paid by the product manufacturer; this does not change the price you pay. PMS & AIF investments are subject to market risks; past performance is not indicative of future returns. This is not investment advice. PMS Sahi Hai is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with P Krishnan.