The State Bank of India said that it was open to buying out stakes of other sponsors in UTI Mutual Fund if the price was right and would then take a decision on whether to merge it with its present asset management company -- SBI Mutual Fund.
Talking to reporters in Kolkata on Friday, chairman A K Purwar said, "We are open to buying out the stakes of other three sponsors of UTI AMC if the price is right. The decision on whether to merge it with SBI AMC would be taken at a latter stage once it was taken over."
At present there are four sponsors of UTI AMC. These are Life Insurance Corporation of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and State Bank of India. When asked on the extent to which SBI was ready to pay to other sponsors to take over their stakes, Purwar said, "That was yet to be decided."
Talking about SBI AMC, Purwar said, "Societi General has taken a 37 per cent stake in SBI AMC and there is a board representation at the fund. We do not intend to allow them to enhance their stake in the AMC, but the decision to merge it with UTI AMC would have to be taken at a later stage," he reiterated.
Purwar also that SBI MF was also open to acquiring any other AMC if was attractive enough to it. But it has to be a perfect match and it needs to have a strong asset base.
Giving out figures for the group, Purwar said, "The group's operating profit stood at Rs 15,201 crore (Rs 152.01 billion) against Rs 14,567 crore (Rs 145.67 billion), net profit for the group on the other hand stood at Rs 5464 crore (Rs 54.64 billion) against Rs 5531 crore (Rs 55.31 billion) in the previous year-registering a 2.73 per cent fall. We are confident of reversing this trend this year."
Return on equity for the group as a whole has also increase from 16.41 per cent to 20.16 per cent while net NPA has declined from 2.73 per cent to 2.22 per cent.
"Focus of he group would be on agriculture, retail, SME, international banking as well as mid cap segment," he added.
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