Mutual funds trump retail in Glenmark surge as cancer drug deal sends stock soaring

If the drug succeeds, Glenmark could be staring at a royalty stream larger than its current EBITDA — a leap that investors and analysts say could not only de-risk the balance sheet but also re-rate the innovation story that Glenmark has long tried to build.

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Mutual funds just beat retail shareholders hands down in Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, and the score wasn’t even close.

After Glenmark’s landmark $2 billion licensing deal with US major AbbVie for its cancer drug, ISB 2001, the stock hit the 10% upper circuit on July 11. But the biggest winners weren’t retail investors — they were India’s top mutual funds that had steadily loaded up on the stock over the past two years.

Data shows mutual fund ownership in Glenmark Pharma jumped from 9.1% in June 2023 to 14.6% in March 2025 — a clear signal of growing institutional conviction in the company’s innovation pipeline, even when public shareholders failed to fully price in its R&D potential.

Promoters continue to hold a 46% stake, while FIIs remained steady at around 23%. Public shareholding, meanwhile, has declined from 20.4% to 15.56% during the same period, indicating that retail investors had been steadily exiting.

The stock also had its share of marquee investors. Prashant Jain’s 3P India Equity Fund held just over 1% in Glenmark, while Ashish Dhawan held 1.77% in March 2025 in his personal capacity, although he pared his holding from 2.55% in September 2024.

Among the fund houses that struck gold:
-HDFC Mutual Fund was the most aggressive. Its Midcap Opportunities Fund held over 1.06 crore shares, while HDFC Manufacturing Fund and HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund also had sizable exposure, with 12 lakh and 8.85 lakh shares respectively.
-UTI Value Fund (9 lakh shares), Bandhan Small-cap Fund (8.62 lakh), and Aditya Birla Sun Life Midcap Fund (7.01 lakh).
-Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund emerged as one of the top buyers in June. Its Multi Cap Fund added 8.45 lakh shares, and its Small Cap Fund disclosed another 3.6 lakh shares.
-Invesco India Mid Cap Fund upped its stake by nearly 20%, picking up 2.74 lakh shares.

FII activity in the stock remained mixed. Smallcap World Fund trimmed its stake from 4.84% in December 2023 to 3.21% in March 2025, while Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global maintained a 3.25% holding.

Fund managers have clearly showed more faith in Glenmark’s R&D narrative than retail investors. The big institutional money rode on the belief that Glenmark’s innovation pipeline was undervalued — and this AbbVie licensing deal, with a $700 million upfront payout and $1.2 billion in milestones, proved them right.