Italy based UniCredit Financial Services, the foreign partner of Baroda Pioneer Mutual Fund is the latest foreign fund house to exit the Indian MF industry.
UniCredit holds 51% stake in the Baroda Pioneer MF joint venture. State run Bank of Baroda, which holds the 49% stake in the fund house, announced that it will buy out 51% stake from Unicredit. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in India.
In its corporate filing at BSE, the Bank of Baroda said, “Pursuant the share purchase agreement, the Bank will be purchasing from its joint venture partner, UniCredit, their entire equity stake of 51 per cent in the AMC and the Trustee Company. Pursuant to the acquisition, the bank will become the sole shareholder of the AMC and the Trustee Company and the sole sponsor of the Baroda Pioneer Mutual Fund."
The move comes on the back of acquisition of Pioneer Investments by Amundi earlier this year. Amundi already has a presence in India as it owns stake in SBI Mutual Fund.
PS Jayakumar, MD and CEO, Bank of Baroda said, “Given the rapid growth in the mutual fund industry, and the trend of household savings moving towards financial assets, the bank sees merit in building out the asset management business, with an aim to become a meaningful player in the asset and wealth management space.”
Baroda Pioneer has built an AUM of Rs. 11,000 crore as on September 2017.
There have been a spate of exits by foreign fund houses, with five foreign AMCs – KBC, Morgan Stanley, ING, PineBridge and Deutsche exiting India.
