PMS Star Siddhartha Bhaiya Dies at 47
Aequitas founder passes away in New Zealand, leaves behind sharp warnings on India’s market bubble
- Aequitas MD & CIO Siddhartha Bhaiya died after cardiac arrest on December 31
- He recently warned of an “epic bubble” in Indian equities
- Founded Aequitas and grew it into a ₹7,700 crore boutique PMS firm
- Market veterans mourn his sudden demise
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 3rd Jan: Popular portfolio management services (PMS) fund manager Siddhartha Bhaiya passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest while on a family vacation in New Zealand. The Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Aequitas was 47.
Aequitas confirmed that Bhaiya passed away on December 31. Just weeks before his demise, he had attended the Moneycontrol Deserv Wealth Summit in Mumbai, where he issued a stark warning about Indian equities, calling the ongoing rally a “bubble of epic proportions” rather than a healthy bull market.
He had argued that headline comfort around the Nifty trading near 20 times earnings was misleading. According to him, heavyweight public sector stocks such as SBI, ONGC, NTPC, Coal India and Power Grid kept the index valuations artificially low, while stocks actually held by most retail investors were trading at much higher multiples. He had said that excluding these PSU stocks, the effective PE of typical retail portfolios was above 40, and midcap and smallcap stocks were trading beyond 50 times earnings.
On the surge in SIP investments, Bhaiya had remarked that it was “not SIP, but SWT — a Systematic Wealth Transfer from India’s middle class to the rich,” pointing out that steady retail inflows had coincided closely with promoter selling.
Aequitas described him as the driving force behind the firm, calling him a visionary investor and institution builder committed to intellectual honesty, disciplined decision-making and long-term thinking. The firm said his leadership shaped Aequitas into a distinctive organisation grounded in strong values, robust processes and accountability.
“While we mourn this immense personal and professional loss, we remain united in our commitment to the principles Siddhartha stood for and the organisation he built,” the firm said, adding that it would continue to operate in line with his philosophy.
Before joining Aequitas in 2012, Bhaiya worked as one of the youngest fund managers at the PMS division of Nippon India Mutual Fund till 2011. A Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience in equity research and fund management, he founded Aequitas in 2013 and grew it into a boutique asset management firm catering to ultra-high-net-worth individuals. As of January 2026, Aequitas Investment Consultancy manages assets worth around ₹7,700 crore.
Market veterans expressed shock over his sudden demise. Helios Capital founder Samir Arora wrote on X, “Very very sorry to see the news of Siddhartha Bhaiya — Uffffffffffffff. Oh God.”
