Sachin Bansal's BACQ may take over Essel Group's mutual fund biz

Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisition is likely to acquire Essel Mutual Fund, which is owned by the Zee group. BACQ’s co-founder and Bansal's close aide, Ankit Aggarwal has been meeting with executives of the mutual fund to finalize the details of the acquisition as per media reports. 

Due to the growth surge in the fintech sector, the digitally invested assets under management (AUM) will reach a valuation of Rs 450 billion in India by 2019 as per a  Deloitte report. Assessing this potential, the ex Flipkart co-founder is looking to employ his tech experience to overhaul the asset management platform.

 After selling his stock during Walmart's Flipkart acquisition for over $1 billion, the entrepreneur has been diversifying his portfolio, investing heavily in the finance sector. He has invested in startups like KrazyyBee, Bounce, and Boat through BAC Acquisitions while he personally holds securities of companies like Ather Energy, Ola, and Unacademy. 

Earlier this month, he also purchased debt paper for Rs 200cr issued by Piramal Enterprises

Essel Mutual Fund, part of  Subhash Chandra’s Essel group was launched in 2009 and had total assets under management worth Rs. 1416.41 crore at the closing of the last financial year.

Debt-laden Essel group has been trying to offload the mutual fund after its failure of repayments to mutual fund debt schemes. With total debt piling up around Rs 17,000 crores, it was in talks with SREI Infra for the sale of the mutual fund business but the deal was called off due to differences regarding valuation.

The development appeared on ETNow.