Aditya Birla Capital’s board greenlights float for mutual fund arm

By Ankit Agarwal

  • 17 Mar 2021
Credit: Pixabay

The board of Aditya Birla Capital has given an in-principle approval to Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC for an initial public offering (IPO), a filing said. 

The investment manager of Aditya Birla Sun Life MF is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and Canada’s Sun Life Financial

According to the company’s website, the average asset under management (AUM) during the quarter ended December stood at Rs 2,55,458 crore. As on December 31, the AUM stood at Rs 2,61,972 crore. 

Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC will join three other larger listed peers in the industry -- HDFC Asset Management Company, Nippon Life India Asset Management, and UTI Asset Management Company, the most recent one to go public. 

Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC’s parent Aditya Birla Capital is backed by Advent International. In September 2019, Aditya Birla Capital, the holding company of Aditya Birla Group's financial services businesses, said it is raising Rs 1,100 crore ($153 million) from US-based private equity firm Advent International and homegrown investor PremjiInvest.

Mutual fund arms have seen M&A activity in the recent past.

In August 2020, troubled private-sector lender Yes Bank announced the sale of its mutual fund arm to White Oak Capital Management-controlled GPL Finance and Investments. 

 In December, state-run Bank of India said it had signed a pact with French multinational AXA Investment Managers Asia Holdings to acquire its entire stake in their local mutual fund joint venture. 

It was reported in September 2020 that private equity giant Blackstone had become the frontrunner for Larsen & Toubro Ltd’s mutual fund business.  

Both are in an “exclusivity” pact to continue bilateral negotiations over valuations.