Institutional brokerage firm Equirus Securities shared in a report that the top three fund houses: SBI AMC, ICICI Prudential AMC and HDFC AMC, dominated the industry earnings in FY26, accounting for about 53% of the overall industry’s net profit. The net profit of the industry saw an almost 14% rise, reaching Rs 17,285 crore in FY26.

The report, which analyzed the profitability of over 20 fund houses, said that the fund houses also saw an increase in their overall management fees by 19% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 28,500 crore in FY26.

Meanwhile, on the expense side, distributor commissions and registrar fees also saw an increase of 13% and 5.5% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 29,600 crore and Rs 2,200 crore, respectively.

ALSO READ

Industry leaders like ICICI Prudential AMC, SBI AMC, Nippon India AMC and HDFC AMC, commanded higher bargaining power with distributors, retaining around 50% of their equity fees. On the other end, fund houses like Kotak AMC, Tata AMC and Canara Robeco AMC paid over 65% of their fees to distributor partners.

UTI AMC recorded the highest equity yield (earnings as a percentage of assets under management) of about 71 bps while ICICI Prudential AMC was second, with earning around 63-64 bps in FY26. Among the fund houses, SBI AMC (from 55.4 bps to 58.2 bps) and Motilal Oswal AMC (from 43.6 bps to 50.1 bps) saw considerable increase in their equity yields in FY26.

ALSO READ

In terms of operational efficiency, measured by employee expenses and other operational expenses like business promotions and technology expenses as a percentage of revenue, ICICI Prudential AMC, SBI AMC and HDFC AMC scored the highest.

The three AMCs recorded less than 20% of their revenue as operational expenses while Canara Robeco AMC and Axis AMC were the least efficient, spending over 40% of their revenue on these operational expenses.

The brokerage shared that it expects SIP flows to drive the growth of fund houses, distributors and registrars moving forward. In terms of stock recommendations, it suggested Prudent Corporate Advisory in capital market space due to its well-diversified distributor platform and high visibility on its recurring trail income.

Among fund houses, it recommended SBI AMC and ICICI Prudential due to superior operating efficiency, resilient fee-retention and strong distribution network.