Veteran fund manager Prashant Jain has resigned as the chief investment officer of HDFC Mutual Fund. He will be replaced by Chirag Setalvad, appointed head equities, and Shobhit Mehrotra, head-fixed income.

HDFC Mutual Fund is India’s third largest player with an asset base of Rs 4.15 lakh crore as of June-end after SBI Mutual Fund and ICICI Mutual Fund. Jain is one of India’s longest-serving fund managers and the only one to have managed a mutual fund scheme since its inception for 28 years. He is widely known as a staunch advocate of the value investment philosophy.

It is learnt that Jain may be setting up his own investment firm. Jain was the chief investment officer of the fund house for 19 years. As the CIO, he was responsible for overseeing total assets under management of over Rs 4 lakh crore and directly managing over Rs 1 lakh crore under schemes like HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund which has assets of over Rs 43,000 crore.

Balanced Advantage is the oldest scheme managed by Jain. The fund was launched in 1994. It has delivered oneyear returns of 12.67 per cent according to Value Research data. The other two schemes that he directly managed included HDFC Flexi Cap and HDFC Top 100. “Both Setalvad and Mehrotra are capable investment professionals, ready to take up the mantle of heading the equities and fixed income function and are well supported by a highly experienced and committed team of investment professionals,” HDFC AMC said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges.