SBI Funds Management IPO plan: How its mutual fund business rose to the top

On 19 March, SBI Funds Management Ltd, the company that runs SBI Mutual Fund, filed papers with the capital markets regulator to offer its shares to the public for the first time. If it follows through with that plan, as expected in the second half of 2026, all the top four mutual funds in India by assets under management (AUM) will be listed on the stock market. SBI Mutual Fund is the largest of the lot, a position it has achieved over the past decade. While it isn’t a standout in equity performance or maximizing revenues relative to assets managed, it has a lot going for it, starting with its parental connections.

In the top 10 schemes, SBI Nifty 50 ETF and SBI BSE Sensex ETF are the only ETFs. All others are actively managed schemes, for which mutual funds can charge higher fund management fees. A look at the asset mix of the top three fund houses shows that SBI has a significantly greater share of AUMs in passives like ETFs than ICICI or HDFC. It is trying to change that. Between March 2023 and December 2025, the share of ETFs in SBI’s AUMs has dropped from 36% to 32%. That is still about twice that of ICICI and about four times that of HDFC.