Spike Hughes: Unlocking India’s Huge Growth Potential For Investors
Spike, you’ve been in the asset management industry for a long time. What’s your background?
30 years in asset management. I set up the fund management business at FTSE 100 company Hargreaves Lansdown. I was later one of the founders that launched and developed Skandia Investment Group, which became the biggest investor in its market. Over my career I have personally raised $15bn.
I now have my own investment company, Cohesion, that I launched with my Chairman James Caan, who is probably familiar to you from Dragon’s Den.
What do you want Cohesion to be known for?
Cohesion’s capability is knowing how to make money for investors.
That’s the brand we want to be known for.
That’s a big ambition in a highly competitive industry – what is the secret to successful investing?
I’ve learned, and I’m sure you’ll agree, the most successful investments contain three key elements:
First, Strong & predictable growth: being invested in a market with powerful tailwinds which provide almost inevitable growth.
Second, Access that most investors simply don’t have, only available by partnering with one of the world’s most successful investment managers who can unlock the market’s full potential.
And third is Time: Ensuring an investment reaches its full potential involves not just timing the investment correctly, but also holding it for an appropriate duration. Warren Buffet once said that the ideal holding time for a great investment is forever. We don’t need to wait that long but you can really benefit from the power of compounding.
Let me tell you about the best investment manager I’ve ever seen, in the strongest and most predictable growth market – India.
My partner’s name is Madhu Kela and in India he’s a household name and, when he gives investment conferences, he can fill a cricket stadium. He delivered annualised returns of ~28% per annum as Head of the massive Reliance investment business. That compared to MSCI World ~4% pa over 16 years.
These returns were delivered in the confines of public mutual funds but now my partnership with Madhu comes from a shared desire to only manage money for select institutions and private family offices, providing extraordinary access.
It’s hard to think of a more exciting market than India. There’s been lots of talk about China (and money made) but the demographic and economic story for India is simply better in every way. Many of the world’s most successful investors and business heads agree about the potential for India. Warren Buffet said “I think the potential for India is incredible.” The likes of Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, Ray Dalio and Tim Cook have said similar. I’m sure you get the picture.
I’ll just lastly touch on Cohesion’s offering and how we’ve structured this partnership – the only way of accessing Madhu Kela and the only vehicle he will be advising. His passion for finding only the very strongest money-making ideas is clear to see.
Our offering is called Cohesion MK Best Ideas which successfully launched in August 2020. By invitation, select investors have the opportunity to invest in the same concentrated portfolio of Madhu Kela’s ‘Best Ideas’– companies listed in India on the world’s fastest growing major stock market. Essentially however, our objective is to build a business that has the reputation of knowing how to make money for investors.
Tell us about your family life
I have a beautiful wife called Tabassum. She’s been my biggest support since day one. She is also from India and so totally gets the India investment opportunity and understands the growth trajectory that India is on as it heads to becoming a top 3 global market and economy. I’m so grateful to Tabassum for putting up with me and always having a smile on her face.
We have two beautiful children – my daughter Victoria who is 14 years old and showing a lot of potential for modelling and the fashion industry. She works with Jim Jordan and is part of his Whitecross Management modelling program.
And our son Henry, 8 years old who wants to take over running Cohesion as soon as he’s old enough!
Our business Cohesion is based in Abu Dhabi and we enjoy living on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.
What is the philanthropic work that you are focussed on?
Our most recent initiative has been to launch the Cohesion Foundation in order to donate a proportion of our company profits towards helping the critical causes of children covering three broad areas (1) Sick children, (2) Orphan children and (3) Under-privileged children in poverty. Our key focuses will be children in the UAE and children in India.
Our first initiative, in partnership with my friend Charles der Kinderen, founder of Dubai based GCC Club, has been to sponsor a Guinness World Record attempt to raise money for the Al Jalila Foundation in Dubai. Jimmy Wright recently attempted to beat an existing Guinness World Record, that was to cycle from Ras Al Khaimah, across the United Arab Emirates, to the Saudi Arabian Border, over 600km and to beat the current record of 41 hours and 47 minutes. Incredibly, Jimmy beat the record in a time of 22 hours and 0 minutes.
This was an almost unimaginable mental and physical challenge and we are proud to have backed Jimmy in this to raise money for children in the UAE with cancer.
