UTI Asset Management Company may consider this week a fresh search process to find a full-time chief — a position that has been vacant for more than one and half years now.
The board of UTI AMC is likely to meet later this week and would consider initiating a fresh process to fill its top position, sources close to the development said.
The meeting follows two of the shortlisted candidates for the position of Chairman and Managing Director at UTI AMC failing to muster the required support in quick succession of either the board members or the shareholders.
The board will review all its options, including the legal aspects involved with rejection of some earlier shortlisted candidates, to take forward the process, sources said.
A pioneer in the Indian mutual fund industry and once the country’s largest fund house, UTI Mutual Fund has been relegated to fifth position for many months now below its newer rivals like HDFC MF, Reliance MF, ICICI Prudential MF and Birla Sunlife MF.
However, it recorded the largest increase in the asset under management for any fund house during the last quarter, ended September 30, when its average AUM rose by Rs 9,860 crore to grow beyond Rs 70,700 crore.
The surge of over 16 per cent in UTI MF’s asset size was much higher than about 8 per cent growth in the entire industry.
Sources said that the board would consider various options, including issuance of a fresh advertisement to invite applications, while some shareholders are also in favour of suggesting some names for further consideration.
Attempts could also be made to convince the shareholders about one of the previously shortlisted names, they added.
UTI AMC has lost considerable ground to its rivals, for which one of the often-cited reasons has been absence of a full-time chief to head the company.
The fund house became headless in February 2011, when its then chief U.K. Sinha left to become the Chairman of capital market regulator SEBI.
In January, the board of UTI AMC appointed its Chief Finance Officer Imtaiyazur Rahman as an acting CEO, till the appointment of a new full-time Chairman and Managing Director. Since then, Rahman has been looking after the day to day operations of the company in consultation with the senior leadership team.
The fund house has been trying to appoint a full-time chief ever since the position fell vacant in February last year, but it has not been able to do so for one or other reasons.