UTI board meeting likely today

Prior day sees sub-committee meetings

UTI Asset Management’s eight-member board of directors is likely to meet on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the matter.

There were sub-committee meetings on Wednesday to discuss operational issues, according to one of them, “to discuss subjects such as risk management and audit issues”.

State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation of India are four of its public sector shareholders. Each holds 18.5 per cent stake in the company. T Rowe, a US-headquartered global investment management agency, is the largest shareholder, owning the remaining 26 per cent in the asset management firm.

T Rowe has two representatives on the board, Flemming Madsen and James Sellers Riepe, according to the website. Other board members are Sachit Jain, P N Venkatachalam, Pradeep Gupta, P R Khanna, M V Suryanarayana and managing director Leo Puri.

UTI was headless for 28 months after UK Sinha quit on as chairman and managing director to become head of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in February 2011.

The government reportedly wanted to place Jitesh Khosla as the head, through the public sector shareholders, a move opposed by T Rowe Price. Finally, the chairman and managing director’s jobs were split. It was announced that Leo Puri would take over as managing director, in a statement issued in July. The chairmanship is still vacant. An email sent to UTI spokesperson did not receive a reply.

UTI had average assets under management of Rs 70,056 crore in the three months ended in September, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India. This makes it the fifth- largest mutual fund, behind HDFC, Reliance, ICICI Prudential and Birla Sun Life.