UTI MF public issue likely to get delayed

The Initial Public Offering of UTI Asset Management Company, the country's 3rd largest fund house, is likely to get delayed till next year as the company has to apply afresh to SEBI.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of UTI Asset Management Company, the country's third largest fund house, is likely to get delayed till next year as the company has to apply afresh to SEBI.

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Besides, the fund house intends to tap the capital market only at a time when it feels that market conditions are favourable for an IPO.

"The license we had for the IPO, has lapsed. We have to apply fresh...We will wait till the market conditions improve, both, domestically and internationally, prior to entering the capital market," UTI MF Chairman and Managing Director U K Sinha said, after a meeting with Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in Mumbai on Friday.

The company would rather prefer to induct a strategic investor to raise funds and enhance its competency in the domestic mutual funds industry, he said.

UTI MF had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI in January this year to sell around 4.8 crore equity shares.

Now, following its decision to defer the IPO, the company has also put on hold its pre-IPO placement plans through which it was planning to off-load 11 per cent to strategic investors.

The Government is now considering the induction of a strategic investor into UTI MF without diluting the majority stake of its for sponsors--State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation of India.