IDFC AMC considers strategic stake sale in to foreign investor

Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) is looking at offloading a minority stake in its asset management business to a foreign investor to expand in the overseas market.

"We will go in for a strategic minority stake sale of the asset management business. We are in talks with a pool of foreign investors," said a company official in the know of the development.

IDFC MF currently manages assets of over Rs 20,000 crore and ranks among the top 10 MFs in the country.

At the end of August, 39 fund houses in the country managed assets worth Rs 6.87 lakh crore, according to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India.

IDFC AMC started operations by acquiring StanChart's asset management business in March 2008.

At present, seven of the top 10 fund managers are joint ventures with the local partners, holding a controlling stake. Franklin Templeton Asset Management India is the only 100 per cent foreign-owned asset manager among the top 10, while Kotak Mahindra AMC is the only one among the larger asset managers without a foreign partner.

In January, T Rowe Price Global Investment Services agreed to acquire a 26 per cent stake in UTI AMC.

In June, Japanese financial major Nomura bought a 35 per cent stake in LIC MF for over Rs 300 crore.