Standard Life To Buy 14% In Hdfc Asset

The UK-based Standard Life Investment is set to pick up an additional 13.9 per cent stake in HDFC Asset Management Company at a premium of around Rs 135 per share.

Standard Life will shell out Rs 40 crore for the investment. It currently holds a 26 per cent stake in the company which will now go up to 39.9 per cent.

Keki Mistry, HDFC managing director, said: "The asset management company also manages the fund of the insurance company. Due to this reason Standard Life wanted to increase its stake in the company."

Standard Life has 18.6 per cent stake in HDFC Standard Life Insurance. Mistry added that it is only an in-principle approval and the actual stake sale may happen after some time. "No date has been fixed for the sale. The transfer could be even next year," he said.

Standard Life today got the approval of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the investment.

HDFC had launched its mutual fund in August 2000. Standard Life Investments had picked up a 26 per cent stake in March 2001 for a total consideration of Rs 56.60 crore.

The shares were acquired at Rs 108.85 per share thus valuing the company at Rs 218 crore. At the current deal of Rs 145 per share, the AMC is valued at Rs 290 crore. It has a share capital of Rs 20 crore.

HDFC Mutual Fund has eight schemes currently with the total assets under management at around Rs 3,900 crore. The assets under its management as on October 31, 2001, stood at Rs 3,700 crore.

The major chunk of the funds were in the Income Fund and in the liquid fund. The assets under management in the Income was at around Rs 1,766 crore and in the liquid fund was at around Rs 1,439 crore as on October 31.