HSBC Asset Management (India) Ltd, India’s 24th largest fund house with assets worth just under Rs 14,000 crore, is expected to announce this week the new pecking order of its fund house employees after the acquisition of L&T Investment Management Limited or L&T Mutual Fund (MF). Typically, when two existing fund houses merge, some key exits happen usually from the fund house that gets acquired. This is because typically a large fund house buys out a smaller one. However, the Rs 39 trillion Indian mutual funds industry has seen a few instances where officials of the acquired fund house continue in prime positions in the merged entity because of the value they bring to the table.
Word on the street is that a similar continuation might also be seen in the HSBC–L&T mutual funds merger. Kailash Kulkarni, the CEO of L&T Mutual Fund, is slated to head HSBC AMC. He will be handheld by Ravi Menon, HSBC MF’s current CEO, for about 4-6 months after which Menon would shift to a bigger role in the HSBC ecosystem. Word on the street also is that the current heads of investment (equity and debt) will also continue in similar roles at HSBC MF after the formal merger is completed and the two AMCs become one. This is to be expected because although HSBC MF acquired L&T MF, the latter is bigger than the former. L&T MF is India’s 14th largest fund house with assets close to Rs 72,000 crore.
