Fund manager Ben Watsa is ending the summer on a hot streak.
Launched by chief executive Mr. Watsa in 2019, the India-focused Marval Guru Fund ranks among the country’s top performing institutional funds, with a 24.3-per-cent annual net return over the past five years. The $400-million portfolio has been among Canada’s top performers for ten consecutive months, and number one for several of them, in a field of 3,200 funds.
Mr. Watsa – son of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. founder and CEO Prem Watsa –founded the Toronto-based Marval Capital Ltd. after spending two decades in finance, including 11 years at Lissom Investment Management Inc., running its global small-to-mid, or SMID, cap fund.
He is also chair of Fairfax India Holdings Corp. and a director at its Toronto-based parent, Fairfax. In Fairfax’s 2024 letter to shareholders, Prem Watsa said his son would become chair of the insurance and asset management company when he departs.
With India’s market facing significant headwinds from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Mr. Watsa talked about the challenges and opportunities in the world’s fourth largest economy.
Why did you decide to launch a career in asset management?
I grew up with a front-row seat most investors never get. My father, Prem Watsa, built Fairfax Financial, and he compressed decades of business and investment lessons into our dinner-table conversations.
One pivotal moment was in high school. My dad handed me the book The Money Masters, and I was struck by how Buffett, Templeton, Graham, and Fisher solved the same puzzle in entirely different ways. That showed me investing could be creative.
Why did you decide to launch a fund focused specifically on India?
At 38, I thought about what business regrets I’d have at 60. What stood out was watching India’s rise rather than participating in it. China had already shown what a clear economic road map can do, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was shifting India from a socialist past toward capitalism. This is reversing the brain drain that sent Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sundar Pichai, my dad and millions of other entrepreneurs abroad.
I spent two years meeting management teams across India. In 2018, Mr. Modi pledged to double GDP in seven years. I took him seriously. In May 2019, I launched the Marval Guru Fund, so Canadians could participate. India has since increased its GDP to US$4-trillion. The PM now talks of a US$10-trillion economy by 2032. We believe no Canadian fund is better positioned to capture India’s growth.
What is the underlying investment philosophy at Marval Capital?
We are based on a value-investing foundation. Our firm’s name captures that ethos: MAR for margin of safety, VAL for long-term value. We buy businesses that are able to reinvest cash at high returns, protected by strong balance sheets and hard-to-replicate advantages.
Most of our holdings are family-controlled; founders think in decades, not quarters, to the benefit of their employees, shareholders and the country they reside in.
What distinguishes the Indian equity market from a developed economy like Canada’s?
Growth, demographics and breadth.
The International Monetary Fund sees India’s real GDP rising 6.3 per cent in 2026, four times the projected pace of Canada and the U.S. A Canadian earns about US$54,000 annually and an Indian earns US$2,700 in the same period, so the the potential to compound in India is long.
On demographics, India’s 1.4 billion people have a median age just under 29, giving the country a growing workforce, while Canada’s 41 million residents, with a median age of 40, are seeing their labour pool contract. Forty one million people are born in India every two years.
And on breadth, Canada’s stock market leans on banks and resources, while India lists 6,000-plus companies across every sector.
How do you achieve on-the-ground coverage in India from your base in Canada?
I travel to India four or five times per year, and our head of research, Alok Deshpande, lives there. On a typical trip, we conduct 40 to 50 meetings and spend four-plus hours per day in a car. Together, we log about 300 management meetings and 20 factory visits annually. It’s private equity diligence applied to public stocks.
What are the primary challenges Marval faces in continuing its performance?
Strategy helps to guide returns and avoid permanent losses of capital. We launched our India small- and mid-cap fund in 2019, when few shared our optimism. Eighteen years in wealth management, including 12 years running a global SMID fund, taught me resilience and to focus on what we control: Buy at sensible valuations, insist on strong balance sheets and cash flow, and favour founder-run firms with tremendous track records and durable advantages.
How has Marval’s approach to investing in India changed since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs?
Tariffs didn’t force us to rewrite the playbook – they amplified why we already overweight India. Washington’s hard line on Beijing was launched by Mr. Trump in 2018, maintained by former president Joe Biden, and has further increased again.
This has turned the “China Plus One” strategy from an option to a mandate for multinationals. Vietnam and the Philippines, each less than one-12th of India’s population and around one-ninth its GDP, simply lack scale.
India is the only alternative that can absorb U.S. demand. Apple built 1 per cent of iPhones in India in 2017; management targets 25 per cent by 2027. In short, U.S. tariffs have created abundant opportunity for India as global supply chains reroute.
What is your vision for Marval Capital? Will you launch other funds?
Our vision is to be the world’s most trusted investment partner for India’s growth. India aims for developed-economy status by 2047, which is a once-in-a-generation backdrop. Rather than launch new vehicles, we’re widening access to the fund itself and continue to grow with long-term clients. We’ve partnered with Templeton and Phillips Capital Management, so U.S. institutions and family offices can invest. As investors increasingly become comfortable in India, we want the Marval Guru Fund to be their preferred choice.
This interview has been edited and condensed.