Jio Financial-BlackRock, Abira Securities file for mutual fund licence with SEBI

Abira Securities has reapplied for the mutual fund license.

Jio Financial Services Ltd & BlackRock Financial Management have filed papers with the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to launch mutual fund business in India.

The in-principle approval is under consideration with SEBI, as the companies as a joint venture had filed application on October 19, 2023, showed the updated list of the mutual fund applications as on December 31, 2023.

Further, Abira Securities has reapplied for the mutual fund license. Established in 2012, Abira Securities is a Kolkata-based stock broking house. Abira had earlier applied for MF licence in April 2022, but its name was missing in the subsequent lists.

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Meanwhile, Angel One limited had already been granted in-principle approval on February 8, 2023, while approval for final registration is under consideration with the regulator.

At present, the Indian mutual fund industry is one of the most hotly contested sectors with 45 players, with more looking to enter the space which manages assets under management of more than Rs 50 trillion.

Notably, three new fund houses entered the Indian MF industry in 2023. Bajaj Finserv Asset Management launched its first scheme in June. Samir Arora’s Helios Mutual Fund launched its first scheme in October. Around the same time, Zerodha Fund House launched its first two schemes. While Helios and Bajaj Finserv will launch actively-managed funds, Zerodha Fund house has taken the passive approach.

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More fund houses will be launched next year. Kenneth Andrade’s Old Bridge Capital Management got the final approval from SEBI earlier this year. In November, portfolio management firm Unifi Capital Pvt Ltd received in-principle approval from SEBI to launch its mutual fund business. It’ll take a few more months for Unifi to get SEBI’s final approval, post which it would launch its first MF scheme.

All eyes have been on the much-awaited launch of Jio-BlackRock Asset Management Co. BlackRock Asset Managers is the world’s largest fund house.

Earlier, it was present in India as DSP BlackRock, but both entities (India’s DSP and BlackRock) parted ways in 2018. BlackRock has now re-entered India, partnering with Jio Financial Services (JFS).

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Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.