India’s largest commercial lender State Bank of India is looking to offload 6% of its stake in its mutual fund arm SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd. via IPO route. SBI Mutual Funds is a joint venture between State Bank of India and France’s Amundi Asset management. Amundi also said on December 15, 2021, that it intends to sell 4% stake in the IPO. Currently, SBI has a 63% stake in the fund house, while Amundi Asset Management holds the remaining 37 per cent stake, according to SBI Mutual Fund website.
“The Executive Committee of Central Board of the Bank has accorded approval for exploring possibilities to offload 6 per cent stake of the Bank in SBI Funds Management Private Limited through IPO route, subject to receipt of all regulatory approvals,” SBI said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. An earlier Bloomberg report stated that the largest mutual fund in the country is reportedly looking to raise about $1 billion via its initial stake sale, valuing the company around $7 billion.
If listed, SBI Mutual Funds will be the fifth domestic mutual fund player to make Dalal Street debut. At present, HDFC MF, Nippon Life MF, UTI MF and Aditya Birla Sun Life MF are some of the other fund houses that are already listed on bourses. Birla Sun Life MF is the latest fund house to get listed on exchanges. Its IPO was open for subscription between September 29 and October 1, 2021.
SBI Mutual Funds clocked a profit of Rs 862 crore in FY21 from a total income of Rs 1,619 crore. It is among the top fund houses in the country managing Rs 5.78 lakh crore worth of investor assets as of the September quarter.