Sukumar Rajah, senior managing director and director of Portfolio Management for Emerging Markets at Franklin Templeton, on Monday, said that he does not expect any meaningful increase in non-performing assets for banks, adding that better-managed banks, in fact, are going to see a reduction in NPAs.
“For the banking sector as a whole, I don’t think the non-performing assets (NPAs) are going to increase meaningfully… the better-managed banks are going to see a reduction in NPA. So the system as a whole should still be fine and for well-managed businesses, I don’t think financing is going to be a constraint,” said Rajah in an interview with CNBC-TV18.
“We are predominantly investing in quality private sector banks in various portfolios. I think the public sector undertaking (PSU) exposure is not much for various Franklin Templeton funds but generally, most of them are not very positive on the state-owned banks,” he added.
On auto stocks, he said, “I think there are structural changes that are happening. It is not just cyclical issues which are affecting the auto sector. One is – there is a change in technology, second is – the way people use automobiles for transportation is also changing… so we have to be careful about how these structural changes are going to affect the auto industry.”