UPDATE 3-T. Rowe to buy 26 pct of India's UTI for $140 mln

By Nishant Kumar and Ross Kerber MUMBAI/BOSTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The four shareholders of India's UTI Mutual Fund will sell a combined 26 percent stake to T. Rowe Price Group Inc for $140 million, giving the U.S. money manager a cheap entry into the fiercely competitive Indian funds industry. "It's a major bet on India," T. Rowe Price chief executive James A.C.

Kennedy told Reuters in an interview. He cited India's rapidly growing population and a savings rate of more than 30 percent, most of which currently is held by banks or in gold stocks rather than funding domestic companies. "Gradually the Indian people will be putting more money into long-term investments, meaning bonds and equites, and we want to be there to help them," Kennedy said. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank , Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corp of India, which each own 25 percent of the firm, will receive 1.63 billion rupees ($35.1 million) each for selling a 6.5 percent stake, UTI chairman U.K. Sinha told Reuters. At that price, the deal valuation works out to 3.3 percent of UTI's average assets in October, one of the cheapest for a large domestic fund firm. "Given UTI's long history, wide reach and more retail equity assets, this looks to be a relatively cheaper valuation," said Chintamani Dagade, a senior research analyst at Morningstar. UTI is India's oldest and fourth-biggest mutual fund firm. It had average assets of 768.5 billion rupees in October, more than 10 million client folios and presence in 460 districts, offering one of the biggest distribution networks in India. T. Rowe Price joins the likes of Italian bank UniCredit's arm Pioneer Global, South Korea's Mirae Asset, France's Axa and Japan's Shinsei, which have started Indian operations over the last two years. More than 20 firms, including Credit Agricole and UBS, are said to be considering an entry into India. The deal gives T. Rowe access to the 37-member Indian fund market, which is forecast by the Boston Consulting Group to manage $520 billion by 2015, up from $135 billion in September. For UTI, T. Rowe opens up opportunities to attract offshore assets at a time when inflows from local investors are slowing. "Their future investments in India will now be through UTI," chairman Sinha said by phone. "They will also help in our research process and our fund management research." Baltimore-based money manager T. Rowe, which is seeking to expand in fast-growing overseas markets, has weathered the credit crisis better than many U.S. asset managers. It also helps manage a portfolio for a unit of Chinese domestic financial firm CITIC Group. Kennedy said his company will work closely with UTI on ideas such as joint products but said none have yet been designed. UTI's strong board and governance made it a good fit for T. Rowe's investment, he said. He added that buying a stake of the existing company made much more sense than trying to build up a stand-alone T. Rowe operation in India. "If we did a start-up in India, we could be working at that for the next few decades," he said. FALLING VALUATIONS Last July, UTI had dumped plans for a $480 million initial public offer of a 49 percent stake due to falling stock markets and started to look for a partner. Valuations of Indian mutual fund firms have dropped sharply following the share market slump and a regulatory change from August this year that bans charging of entry fees for selling funds. The ban on entry fees is expected to slow growth in the industry, add to distribution costs, cut profitability and delay the path to break-even for newcomers. In September, the financial services unit of Indian engineering company Larsen & Toubro said it planned to buy DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management for 450 million rupees, valuing the firm at about 1.6 percent of its August-end average assets. In November last year, Religare Enterprises Ltd agreed to buy Lotus Mutual Fund, a unit of Singapore state investor Temasek and London-based Sabre Capital, for about 1-2 percent of Lotus's assets, according to media reports. In contrast to those valuations, in March 2008 Infrastructure Development Finance Co agreed to buy Standard Chartered's Indian fund unit for about 6 percent of assets. And in 2007, hedge fund Eton Park paid about 13 percent of assets for 5 percent stake in Reliance Capital's fund arm, India's biggest mutual fund firm. ($1= 46.5 rupees) (Editing by John Mair and Muralikumar Anantharaman and Gerald E. McCormick) (([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail])) Keywords: UTI TROWE/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.