SBI Funds IPO Crorepatis Watch Their Paper Peak Fade

SBI Funds Management closed at ₹500.35 on October 1, 12.83% below its ₹574 IPO price, after a July listing that valued 13 executives as crorepatis.

The NSE debut on July 21 opened at ₹613.30, a 6.85% premium. Promoters had already sold. The asset manager collected nothing, because the issue was a pure offer for sale.

Thirteen Executives Hit Crorepati Status on Paper

At the issue price of ₹574, the prospectus showed 13 employees holding vested equity worth more than ₹1 crore each. Deputy Managing Director Devinder Pal Singh, at the firm since January 1, 2006, sat at the top of that list, and Chief Investment Officer Srinivasan Rama Iyer was next.

Those figures were marks at a fixed price, not cash in a bank. Singh’s 21,14,004 vested shares were valued at ₹121 crore at ₹574, with 5,19,300 unvested options worth about ₹30 crore if they vest and are exercised at the same price. Iyer’s 18,24,728 vested shares were valued at ₹105 crore, with 8,94,800 unvested options worth about ₹51 crore.

The 13 employees named in the prospectus also included strategy head Srinivas Jain at about ₹59 crore of vested stock, fixed-income chief Rajeev Radhakrishnan at about ₹36 crore, Chief Risk Officer Aparna Nirgude at about ₹31 crore, and Chief Compliance Officer Vinaya Datar at about ₹21 crore. Chief Financial Officer Inderjeet Ghuliani, HR head Rajat Grover, Chief Information Security Officer Sanjay Pugaonkar, and fund managers Mohan Lal and Mahesh Chhabria each cleared the ₹1 crore line on vested shares.

THE TOP ESOP HOLDINGS AT ₹574

The rest of the firm did not join them. SBI Funds Management had 1,828 employees as of March 31, 2026. Thirteen names at the issue price is a thin slice of that headcount, and the crorepati tag was always a ₹574 snapshot.

The Cheques Went to SBI and Amundi

State Bank of India and Amundi India Holding sold the stock. The company issued no new shares, so every rupee of the public offer went to those two promoters.

The final public offer was 170,956,631 shares in the public offer at ₹574, aggregating ₹9,795.32 crore after a ₹54 employee discount. SBI sold 99,501,649 shares in that offer for ₹5,701.16 crore. Amundi India Holding sold 71,454,982 shares for ₹4,094.16 crore.

Two days before the red herring was fully in the market, SBI had already closed a pre-IPO sale of 2,88,32,748 shares at the same ₹574, raising ₹1,655 crore from 30 investors, or 1.4156% of pre-offer capital. Add that block to the public offer and SBI’s combined take was ₹7,356.16 crore. The prospectus had put SBI’s weighted average cost on the shares it planned to sell at ₹0.15, and Amundi’s at ₹4.35.

THE JULY CASH CALENDAR

1. July 9, 2026: SBI sells 2,88,32,748 shares at ₹574 to 30 investors for ₹1,655 crore.
2. July 13, 2026: Anchor book opens and closes at ₹574.
3. July 14, 2026: Public offer opens, price band ₹545 to ₹574, lot of 26 shares (₹14,924 at the cap).
4. July 16, 2026: Offer closes, subscribed 41.66 times overall.
5. July 17, 2026: Basis of allotment finalised.
6. July 21, 2026: Shares list on NSE at ₹613.30 and on BSE at ₹610.

Amundi first bought into the venture on May 30, 2011, paying €50 million, about ₹173.9 crore at the time, for a block that a split and a 3:1 bonus later turned into a 36% stake. In its half-year report it said the listing was a success, that it sold 3.7% of the capital, and that the leftover 32.6% was valued at €3.5 billion at the IPO price. It will book the sale in the third quarter of 2026.

The sale made by Amundi will lead to the recognition of a capital gain in the accounts for the third quarter of 2026. At the date of the financial statements, the impact of this sale is estimated at approximately +300 million euros net of tax effects.

Amundi, Half-Year Financial Report 2026

That is about €300 million net of tax, in cash accounting, on a stake it had held for 15 years. SBI Chairman C.S. Setty said after listing that the Amundi partnership and the ownership structure were unchanged, and that neither partner planned a further stake sale.

SBIFUNDS Now Trades Below the IPO Price

The grey market had implied a listing near 16% above ₹574. The NSE open was 6.85%. The stock printed a high of ₹624.95 on listing day, then closed at ₹610.15, up 6.30% on the issue, and the premium did not last.

On October 1 it closed at ₹500.35, down 12.83% from the issue and 18.42% from the NSE listing print, after touching a low of ₹497 the same session. Market cap at that close was ₹1,01,912.69 crore, against ₹1,16,913.90 crore at the ₹574 issue on 2,036,827,612 shares. The multiple was 33.23 times trailing earnings.

THE PRICE SINCE LISTING

• Issue price: ₹574 a share, the top of a ₹545 to ₹574 band.
• NSE listing: ₹613.30 on July 21, a 6.85% premium, with an intraday high of ₹624.95.
• October 1 close: ₹500.35, 12.83% below the issue and 18.42% below the NSE open.
• Range since listing: high ₹624.95, low ₹497, both set inside the first 73 sessions.

Singh’s 21,14,004 vested shares were worth ₹105.77 crore at the October 1 close, down from ₹121 crore at the issue. Iyer’s vested block marked at ₹91.30 crore against ₹105 crore in July. They are still rich against 2018 grant prices. They are poorer against the print that made the headlines, and they were not the ones who sold ₹9,795.32 crore of stock into the IPO book.

The operating numbers did not track the share. For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, earnings per share were ₹4.32 against ₹2.99 a year earlier, revenue was ₹1,390 crore, up 34%, and net profit was ₹880 crore, up 45%. Buyers who wanted the AMC paid ₹574 for a business that kept growing and a stock that did not.

What the 2018 ESOP Plan Granted

SBI Funds Management put in an employee stock option plan in 2018 and amended it later. By the red herring date it had allotted 36,827,612 equity shares to 625 employees, including former staff, a 1.81% slice of the 2,036,827,612 shares then in issue.

WHAT ESOP 2018 GRANTED

• The pool: 36,827,612 shares issued to 625 people, current and former, by the date of the red herring prospectus.
• The prices: options were granted at exercise prices from ₹38.75 to ₹455 a share, against an IPO of ₹574.
• The lock-in: pre-offer capital is locked for six months from allotment, but shares issued or transferred on ESOP 2018 exercises are exempt.
• The listing kicker: employees could bid in a reserved portion at a ₹54 discount, so ₹520 against ₹574, and that bucket was subscribed 4.65 times.

An option granted near ₹39 and held to an issue at ₹574 is a 14-times mark before tax, which is why the 13 names cleared ₹1 crore. Most of the 1,828 people on the March 31 payroll never sat in that grant set, and 625 allottees across eight years is still a minority of the firm. The plan paid people who stayed. It did not pay the whole house.

Those ESOP shares can trade. The six-month lock-in on pre-offer capital does not apply to them, so the 13 were not forced holders of a falling print. Public filings do not show whether Singh, Iyer or the others sold after July 21. The only sure cash from this listing sits with the two promoters who signed the offer for sale.

Qualified Buyers Covered Their Quota 140.11 Times

Institutions wanted the stock. Retail got a smaller slice of a crowded book, then watched the listing premium fade. The offer was subscribed 41.66 times in three days, with qualified institutional buyers at 140.11 times, non-institutional buyers at 22.51 times, and retail at 3.6 times. SBI shareholders came in at 9.52 times. Employees, even with the ₹54 discount, were at 4.65 times.

HOW THE BOOK WAS COVERED

A 140.11-times QIB book and a 6.85% NSE open do not match the story a grey-market premium of roughly 16% had been telling. The float was an exit, priced at the top of the band, and the first print left little on the table. Holders who still argue the issue should have come at ₹450 are describing a different deal, one the sellers had no reason to strike.

Face value is ₹1, which made some investors compare the ₹574 cap with older ₹10-face listings and call the multiple extreme. The comparison is cosmetic. The capital was 2,036,827,612 shares of ₹1, and the issue valued the AMC at ₹1.17 lakh crore. That is the number the book accepted, and it is also the number the secondary market has since marked down.

The Offer Left the Asset Manager With No Cash

SBI Funds Management did not receive the IPO proceeds. The 170,956,631 shares were already in issue, sold by SBI and Amundi, so the AMC’s balance sheet did not change on listing day. Managing Director and Chief Executive Debasish Mishra runs a listed company that raised no primary capital from the event that made 13 of his colleagues paper crorepatis.

One of those 13 has already left the building. On September 29 the board noted Ghuliani’s retirement as chief financial officer and key managerial personnel at the close of September 30, on superannuation, and named Amol Joshi, previously CFO of TransUnion CIBIL, as his successor from October 1. Vinaya Datar remains compliance officer, company secretary and head of legal, still on the KMP list next to Mishra, Deputy Chief Executive Denys Fougeroux de Campigneulles, and Joshi.

Amundi will take its €300 million into the third-quarter accounts. SBI has ₹7,356.16 crore from the pre-IPO block and the public offer combined, and Setty has said it does not plan to sell more. The 13 executives still hold a claim on a stock that closed at ₹500.35 on October 1, 12.83% below the price that made them a headline, and the company they work for is listed, larger on paper in June, and no richer in cash from the IPO itself.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a completed public offer and subsequent share-price moves, and it is for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell SBI Funds Management shares, or tax advice on ESOPs, capital gains or offer-for-sale proceeds. Readers should consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser and a qualified tax professional before acting on any figure in this piece. Share prices, holdings and tax treatment reflect the cited filings and market data as of the dates given and can change.