Diviniti Equity Long-Short Fund: ITI MF's Risk-Managed SIF

Diviniti Equity Long-Short Fund: A Closer Look at ITI MF's Risk-Managed Equity Bet

ITI Mutual Fund's Diviniti Equity Long-Short Fund invests 80-100% in equities with tactical short positions via derivatives for downside protection. Back-tested across seven years, it offers a disciplined SIF strategy balancing growth and risk management, appealing to investors seeking controlled equity exposure.

SIFcase Team

17 November 2025·1 min read

With the Diviniti Equity Long Short Fund's New Fund Offer roughly a week into its subscription window, ITI Mutual Fund has been detailing how the strategy is built to balance growth participation with downside protection — a positioning the AMC is calling a "fresh, disciplined take" on equity investing under the SIF framework.

How the fund is structured The fund invests 80–100% of assets in listed equities and equity-related instruments, with the remainder held in debt, money market instruments, REITs and InvITs for liquidity management and diversification. It also carries permission to invest in overseas shares (up to USD 50 million) and international ETFs (up to USD 20 million), giving the fund a modest global diversification component that several purely domestic-focused SIFs launched around the same period do not offer.

Where the long-short element comes in

Core long exposure to equities selected for growth potential
Tactical short positions, implemented through derivatives, activated during periods of elevated volatility or downside risk
A strategy back-tested across roughly seven years of market cycles, according to the AMC, rather than built purely around current market conditions

Rajesh Bhatia, CIO of ITI Mutual Fund, has framed the fund's philosophy around the idea that managing downside risk during market corrections deserves equal weight to capturing upside during rallies — a stance that shapes how and when the fund's short positions are expected to be deployed, rather than running short exposure as a constant, static hedge.

Positioning relative to the broader SIF category As one of the earlier long-short equity SIFs to launch — arriving in November 2025, only around seven months after the regulatory framework itself took effect — Diviniti's debut fund entered the market before several larger, subsequently launched competitors from bigger fund houses. Distributors note that this early positioning, combined with the fund's multi-year back-tested track record, gives ITI Mutual Fund a differentiated pitch: a smaller AMC offering a strategy with more history behind it than some larger rivals' newly designed SIF products.

The AMC has reiterated the standard SIF risk disclosures throughout its NFO communications — noting that investments in Specialised Investment Funds carry relatively higher risk, including potential loss of capital, liquidity risk and market volatility, and that past performance, including the fund's back-tested results, is not a guarantee of future returns.

Sign in to SIFcase