Jayesh Manek
Jayesh Manek is a British fund manager. He was the winner of the Sunday Times Fantasy Fund Manager competition in 1994 and 1995, beating thousands of other entrants and winning £100,000 on each occasion. This attracted the attention of John Templeton, who gave Manek £5 million to invest in July 1995 and a further £5 million in June 1996.
Funds
In 1995 Manek helped found India Value Investments, a Mauritius-based investment firm investing in Indian equities. In December 1997, Manek became the first British Indian fund manager, establishing the Manek Growth Fund, a unit trust open to public investment.By 2000, having attracted over £100 million in investment to the Growth Fund, the fund was up by 160%, and worth nearly £300 million. The dot-com crash saw values crashing, and since that time Manek Growth has been a poor performer. In the 1, 3, and 10 years to 2 January 2012, Manek Growth was the worst performing fund in its sector. Heavy holdings in individual, high-risk shares has seen fund values fluctuate wildly, but the long-term trend is only down, and Manek Growth is as of 18 April 2012 worth less than its launch price. Analysis of Manek's long-term failure has noted that he made multiple entries into the Sunday Times competition and that his high-risk approach might result in big short-term gains, ideal in a competition where the only prize is for coming first, but when real money is at stake, risky.
In December 2017, with the Manek Growth Fund having fallen by 55% over the past ten years, Manek closed the fund entirely, with investors being redeemed.