For several years now, US investor T.RowePrice (TRP)—it holds a 26% stake in UTI—has been fighting a pitched battle with UTI’s PSU shareholders over the need to run the mutual fund in a professional manner. Even Sebi regulations make it clear the PSUs—SBI, LIC, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB)—can’t be behaving in the manner they are. Indeed, the rules talk of them needing to dramatically lower their stake by next March, but the finance ministry refuses to step in to resolve the issue—at stake are the interests of 11 million shareholders, lakhs of pensioners, Rs 3.6 lakh crore of UTI’s corpus and India’s reputation as a safe place for global investors.
Edelweiss MF’s Trideep Bhattacharya: Inflows following earnings growth last longer
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