LIC Nomura Mutual Fund is now LIC Mutual Fund.
This has come as no surprise. Last year, news reports stated that Japanese fund house Nomura planned to exit the mutual fund space. Which translated into terminating its joint venture with the state-run insurance giant. Or, at the very least, reduce its stake.
It was then reported that LIC Housing Finance Ltd, in a stock-exchange filing, stated that it would buy a 19.3% stake each in LIC Nomura Asset Management Company and LIC Nomura Mutual Fund Trustee Company, from the Japanese company, for Rs 27.36 crore and Rs 1.52 lakh, respectively. At that time, Nomura owned a 35% stake in each of the companies.
However, Nomura has completely exited the joint venture. The new joint venture partners are GIC Housing Finance and Corporation Bank along with the existing partner LIC Housing Finance Ltd.
The shareholding pattern of the AMC is: LIC at 45%, LIC Housing Finance Ltd at 39.30%, GIC Housing Finance at 11.70%, and Corporation Bank at 4%.
All approvals from SEBI and other regulatory bodies concerned have been received.
The mutual fund industry has seen many exits by global players - JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, ING Investment Management, PineBridge Investments, Daiwa, Fidelity and Belgium-based KBC Asset Management. The latest being Nomura.