It’s now a year UTI Mutual Fund is without a CEO

UTI Mutual Fund, India's seventh largest asset manager, has remained without a chief executive officer for over a year as its shareholders are yet to give approval to the name proposed by the board. The fund’s shareholders — State Bank of India (SBI), Life Insurance Corporation of India(LIC), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda(BoB) and T Rowe Price — have not responded to the board’s communication on the matter, said a person close to the development.

“Letters has gone from UTI AMC to all shareholders seeking their consent on the name recommended by the board but it is yet to receive the response,” said a person familiar with the development.

The name of the candidate put forward by the board could not be ascertained. The speculation in the mutual fund industry has been that the interim CEO Imtaiyazur Rahman, who took charge after Leo Puri completed his five- year term in August 2018, is a front-runner. Ashishkumar Chauhan, CEO, BSE, and Kailash Kulkarni, chief executive officer, L&T Mutual Fund, were among some of the other top contenders for the post.


The delay in appointing a new CEO has also delayed the initial public offering process. Last year in March, Sebi had introduced a cross-holding limit in mutual funds to eliminate potential conflicts of interest.

A shareholder with 10 per cent or more in an AMC in India cannot hold a similar sized stake in another fund house and would also have to give up board seats. UTI AMC’s local shareholders had to pare their stakes to less than 10 per cent each by March this year, a deadline they have missed. All the four public shareholders hold 18.5 per cent each in UTI AMC, while T Rowe Price holds the balance 26 per cent stake.

Emails sent to SBI, LIC, PNB, BoB and T Rowe Price went unanswered till the time of going to press. UTI AMC has been headless in the past too. Leo Puri was named UTI MF CEO two years after UK Sinha left to join as the chairman of Sebi. UTI AMC managed assets worth Rs 1.58 lakh crore as on June 31.