(File photo)

MUMBAI: UTI Assets Management Co — popularly known as UTI Mutual Fund , the country’s oldest fund house — has filed a draft prospectus with markets regulator Sebi for an initial public offering (IPO) through which five of its existing shareholders will reduce their stakes.

There are various estimates about how much the offer could raise, ranging from Rs 3,000 crore to over Rs 5,000 crore for the 30.75% stake that is being offered by the shareholders. SBI, the country’s largest lender, LIC, the largest life insurer in India, and Bank of Baroda (BoB), one of the nation’s leading public sector banks, are each selling about 1.04 crore shares of UTI MF in the offer.

Earlier this month, Sebi had passed an order against the three shareholders to dilute their individual stakes in the fund house to below 10% by March 2020 from the current level of 18.25% each. Else, their voting rights in the fund house will be limited to 10% — the maximum stake an entity can hold in a fund house if that entity also holds a majority stake in another fund house. All the three — SBI, LIC and BoB — have majority-owned fund houses in India.

Punjab National Bank, which also holds 18.25% but has exited its MF business, and T Rowe Price, the US-based global assets management major that is a strategic investor in the fund house with a 26% stake, will each offer about 28 lakh shares in the IPO.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital , Citibank, DSP Merrill Lynch , ICICI Securities , JM Financial and SBI Capital Markets are managing the offer.

