Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC had a quiet debut today as the scrip got listed at Rs 715 on NSE over its issue price of Rs 712. Your view
It is a happy moment for all of us as my AMC is now part of the listed space along with other client service businesses in the country. A new journey will begin now. I am sure that as time passes people will start realising the valuation gap that exists between some other listed players and the valuation at which they are trading. As the understanding goes up, I am sure the larger participation would come from both the existing investors and others in the issue on the basis of the conviction. I am sure newer players will also participate and that is the time when we will see how the stocks are performing.
Can you talk about the growth and the potential ahead?
In the last six-seven years, our AUM has grown from over Rs 32,000 crore in 2016 to around Rs 1,20,000 crore. That is a tremendous job that we did at the AMC. We have a large pool of customers which is around 2 million customers and about 5.2 million unique customers. The large pool of customer base can go up quite significantly even.
I would assume that going forward the mutual fund industry will continue to see a significant acceptance and growth coming from large investors and others. We remain extremely committed to building the business to the next level.
We now have five top players in the mutual fund industry. Do you think there is space for 10 houses? Do you expect any consolidation in this sector?
I have been part of the mutual fund industry for the last 26 years. I have found that consolidation happens at every point of time and we are seeing many people who have built huge AMC businesses, some have moved out, some have got consolidated and we as an AMC have also consolidated in the past. The mutual fund industry space is up for sale.
At the same time, space is available for more and more players to come. I would assume that with more players coming in and existing players like us being deeply committed to build the business, the industry can grow in size to the next level.
