ABSL AMC eyes ~20k-cr valuation

Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company (AMC) is looking at a valuation of ~20,500 crore in its initial public offering (IPO)— the fourth by a domestic mutual fund house.

The maiden offering will open September 29 and close on October 1, the firm said on Friday.

The price band for the issue is ~695-712 per share. At the upper band, the issue size would be ~2,768 crore.

The IPO will entirely be a secondary share sale by promoters Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL) and Sun Life AMC.

The domestic partner is selling 2.85 million shares – less than 1 per cent of its stake – to raise about ~203 crore. Meanwhile, Canadian firm Sun Life will divest 12.56 per cent holding, or 36 million shares, to raise ~2,565 crore at the top end of the price band.

At present, ABCL holds a 51 per cent stake, while Sun Life holds the remaining 49 per cent. Following the IPO, the total promoter stake in the fund house will fall from 100 per cent at present to 86.5 per cent.

Aditya Birla AMC is the country’s largest non-bank affiliated fund house in terms of assets under management (AUM) and fourth overall.

For the quarter ended June 30, Aditya Birla AMC had an average AUM of ~2.84 trillion. It had reported net profit of ~155 crore on revenues of ~336 crore.

UTI AMC was the last MF to come out with an IPO. Its stock has more than doubled since listing exactly a year ago.

The Street has largely been bullish on AMC stocks, given their sound fundamentals and return on equity (ROE) ratio.

Experts say the companies in the space have high growth potential given the low penetration of financial products in the country. However, regulatory tightening and focus on lowering costs are seen as headwinds for the industry.