Top 10 MFs continue to depend on promoters for ramping up AUM

Even as top 10 fund houses have ramped up their businesses by almost 40 per cent in fiscal 2017, their dependence on promoter groups has also gone up, which rose to 4 per cent or over Rs 57,600 crore this year.
This rise means that sponsors of fund houses still continue to drive inflows with top 10 AMCs alone netting Rs 57,616 crore till February, which is nearly 4 per cent of their total AUM (Assets Under Management) of Rs 14,88,750 crore, according to Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) data.
These 10 players had an AUM of Rs 10.84 trillion in March 2016, which rose to Rs 14.89 trillion in February 2017. Against this, for the full fiscal 2016, sponsors' contribution was Rs 40,593 crore, or 3.75 per cent of the total AUM.

As per the data, for Birla MF, which is the fourth largest fund house, 8.23 per cent of its AUM or around Rs 16,176 crore, came from investment by group companies.
DSP Blackrock, which has around 5.56 per cent of its AUM from group companies at Rs 3,608 crore against Rs 2,646 crore.
In absolute terms, Birla AMC has the highest contribution followed by ICICI Prudential MF that has around Rs 9,171 crore investments from group companies.

As per the 11-month data, UTI MF has grown its AUM contribution from group company to 4.46 per cent at Rs 6,114 crore as of end February from 2.48 per cent at Rs 2,610 crore in March 2016.

UTI MF is sponsored by the insurance behemoth LIC, public sector lenders SBI, BoB and PNB. Out of this, LIC is the largest institutional investor.
They not only invest in UTI MF but also in other fund houses. However, in case of UTI MF, they are the sponsors, their investment is shown separately.
It is followed by ICICI, which has seen rise in investment coming from group company to 3.74 per cent at Rs 9,171 crore, from 3.02 per cent at Rs 5,404 crore, during the 11-month period under review.
Even though at Reliance AMC, this rose to Rs 6,170 crore in February from Rs 5,524 crore, but in percentage terms the investment came down to 2.88 per cent from 3.45 per cent.

Reliance AMC chief executive Sundeep Sikka told PTI that "as a policy we have always kept our focus on retail participation and increasing our investor base."
Similarly, fifth largest fund house SBI Mutual Fund also saw the contribution from group company coming down during the period to Rs 7,069 crore or 4.52 per cent of its total AUM from Rs 7,210 crore or 6.55 per cent.
Explaining the reason, SBI MF executive director D P Singh said, "as a conscious decision, we don't want to be over-dependant on the group company. Our focus is more on organic growth.