KIAMS Invites Specialist To Discuss Hedge Funds

Yantrapur, Harihar - 577 601 Karnataka (India), October 14, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) organized a guest lecturer and Interactive session for students of PGDM with Mr. PS Krishna Prasad, Head, and Luminance Knowledge Center. Held in Lecture Hall 5 on 13th of September, 2014, at 2 pm, the topic titled ‘Hedge Fund History – A Perspective’ was divided into two sessions – the first session dealt with concepts of hedge funds and the next one gave an overview of opportunities in the field.

Professor Geetha Madhuri began the session by introducing the speaker to the audience. Mr. Prasad took over the dais and urged the students to interact, rather than simply listen, in order to gain a better understanding of the topics discussed. He began by introducing the history and background of hedge funds, explaining that they were an investment vehicle that pools capital from investors and invests in securities and other instruments. He then explained the difference between Hedge funds and Mutual funds: “Hedge and Mutual funds are both pooled investments; however, Hedge funds are from qualified investors and are less regulated, while Mutual funds have large and diversified investors and are highly regulated”. He also explained the difference between Hedge funds and Private Equity.

Talking about the investors he said, “There are two categories of Hedge Fund investors – Institutional and Individual.” He then touched upon the norms and guidelines for both categories of investors. The investments usually come from Foundations, Corporate pension funds and Public & State funds, he said. Explaining the structure of a Hedge Fund, he said, “Hedge funds have three principal units – the investors, investment management Co., and the hedge fund itself, which is either a LLP or a Co.” He then launched into the advantages of hedge funds, including their limited liability designation; he also discussed their flow through tax obligations. Various investment styles were also discussed along with the types of fees and stakeholders. Mr. Prasad ended the first session outlining the challenges associated with Hedge funds and the developing trends forecasted up until the year 2018.

The second session was about career opportunities in finance sector. He responded to the students’ queries and spoke to them about various roles like support (accounting), markets, operations (accounting/data crunching), analysis, strategy (visioning, conceptualization and planning), management, and other services like rating services. The students interacted with the speaker to understand the industry expectations and gaps in their learning. At the end of the talk, the session was closed with a sincere vote of thanks to the speaker, Mr. Prasad.