India’s Fallen Tech Darlings Are Value Buys for Franklin Templeton After $20 Billion Wipeout

(Bloomberg) -- Franklin Templeton bought shares of some Indian technology startups after concerns over valuations and higher interest rates shaved more than $20 billion in market value from five high-profile recent market debutants.

“We are looking at new tech companies as their valuations have been reset,” Anand Radhakrishnan, chief investment officer for equities at Franklin Templeton’s India unit, said in an interview. “More importantly, there is data available about their business models.”

Initial public offerings of Indian internet firms boomed in 2021 thanks to pandemic-triggered easy-money policy and government efforts to foster startups. The stocks were hit last year by caution over fundamentals and governance, magnified by the impact of the global tech selloff amid Federal Reserve policy tightening.

Radhakrishnan noted that some new tech firms have begun to show signs that they can generate profits, supported by first-mover advantages and big market shares. 

Funds managed by Franklin Templeton bought at least 3.3 million shares of e-commerce logistics provider Delhivery Ltd. and more than 2 million shares of PB Fintech Ltd., the operator of online insurance marketplace Policybazaar, in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The purchases followed steep losses in the two stocks as well as One 97 Communications Ltd., parent of digital payments firm Paytm, online food delivery company Zomato Ltd. and FSN E-Commerce Ventures Pvt, which owns beauty product e-retailer Nykaa. Paytm suffered the most, with its market capitalization shrinking $12.7 billion.

“We didn’t participate in these IPOs, except Zomato, but now we see a lot more transparency, a lot more discussions with management are happening,” said Radhakrishnan, who overseas assets valued at $7 billion.

The firm, whose $1.3 billion India Flexi Cap Fund has outperformed 86% of its peers over the last three years, recognizes the disruptive nature of some of these businesses and “their medium-to-longer term ability to make money,” he said.

Here are some other takeaways from interview with Radhakrishnan:

• Stocks in India are likely to show a better performance in 2023, having undergone time and value correction over the past year. Valuations have become more moderate, allowing the possibility of reasonable returns
• Debt investments in India have started looking attractive compared to a year ago but there remains scope for more exposure to stocks as local investors are “under invested”
• Local shares may come under pressure if the Indian government raises taxation on gains from equity trading or changes rules related. The market is not “not correctly set up for that”
  • “I think risk capital is scarce in the country and the relative tax advantage helps people to channelize savings to riskier capital avenues.”

(Updates with additional takeways in bullet points.)

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