"GICMF is not averse to selling a majority stake to the joint venture (JV) partner. However, initially it would be offloading not more than 50 per cent," company chief executive AR Prabhu told The Financial Express.

The sponsors of GICMF would give a mandate to the two shortlisted management consultants to induct a foreign partner and complete the modalities of the JV by March end. "GIC has recently shortlisted two management consultants out of the ten approached them." Mr Prabhu said.

GICMF has a total corpus of Rs 450 crore and assets under management of Rs 325 crore. The MF has a total of eight schemes consisting of four open-ended and four close-ended schemes and currently has 10 branches. Mr Prabhu said : "The JV partner could also use GIC's vast network of branches for marketing."

A new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) would also be appointed by then. The salary structure of the employees would also be significantly revised.

A year ago, GIC had appointed KPMG consultants to find out the growth potential of GICMF. The consultant had recommended that MF should go in for a JV partner.

In the growth plan it had charted out, it had recommended that a new CEO and CIO be appointed and salaries of the employees should increase three to four fold. As part of its restructuring, GICMF would also be shifting its office to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building by the first week of January.

The sponsors of GICMF are General Insurance Corporation of India and its four subsidiaries - National Insurance Company Ltd, The New India Assurance Company Ltd, The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd, United India Insurance Company Ltd - and SC Management Co Inc (USA) an affiliate of Soros Fund Management. GIC and Soros Fund are the majority stakeholders.