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Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund

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Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company run as a 51:49 joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited, the Mahindra group’s listed NBFC, and Manulife Investment Management (Singapore) Pte Ltd, the Asian arm of the Canadian financial group Manulife. The fund house operates under SEBI registration and the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 . As of June 2025 it managed about Rs 29,590 crore across roughly 57 schemes, rising to about Rs 33,324 crore by November 2025. Those figures put it in the lower-mid tier of the Indian mutual fund industry : bigger than long-tail houses but well outside the top 10, which all manage above Rs 2 lakh crore.

The current structure dates to 29 April 2020, when Manulife completed the acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in what was then the wholly owned Mahindra Asset Management Company for about Rs 265 crore, roughly US$35 million, under a deal first announced in 2019. Mahindra Finance kept the controlling 51 per cent. The combination pairs Mahindra’s distribution reach across Tier II and Tier III India, built on the NBFC’s branch footprint, with Manulife’s product-design and global research support. The fund house concentrates on equity-oriented schemes aimed at first-time investors drawn from the Mahindra distribution catchment.

This article covers the joint venture’s origins and ownership split, its leadership and investment heads as of 2025, its scheme range, its distribution model, and where it sits among the other JV-structured AMCs in India.

History

Mahindra Asset Management, 2013 to 2020

The AMC was set up as Mahindra Asset Management Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. After SEBI approval it launched its first schemes in 2016. In its early years it functioned largely as a fund arm of the Mahindra financial-services group, leaning on M&M Finserv’s branch network in semi-urban and rural India for distribution. Growth was modest; by the time the Manulife deal closed the AMC managed around Rs 5,217 crore in average AUM as of 31 March 2020.

The 2020 Manulife joint venture

Manulife and Mahindra Finance signed the deal in 2019 and Manulife Investment Management (Singapore) completed the 49 per cent acquisition on 29 April 2020 for about Rs 265 crore. The transaction cleared SEBI and the relevant foreign-investment approvals. Paul Lorentz, then president and chief executive of Manulife’s global wealth and asset-management business, framed the rationale around driving fund penetration in India’s smaller cities, building on Manulife’s record of building retail fund businesses across Asia.

What each side brought to the venture:

  • Mahindra side: distribution across the M&M Finserv branch network, particularly strong in Tier II and Tier III towns, plus the customer base of group entities such as Mahindra Rural Housing Finance.
  • Manulife side: product-design support, global research and benchmarking, and the credibility of a large international asset manager.

The renamed entity, Mahindra Manulife Investment Management Private Limited, began operating under the Mahindra Manulife banner after the deal closed.

Growth after the JV

AUM grew several-fold after 2020, helped by the broad SIP-led tailwind across the Indian industry, increased marketing spend from both partners and a push through the Mahindra branch channel. From about Rs 5,000 crore at the JV close, average AUM reached about Rs 29,590 crore by June 2025 and about Rs 33,324 crore by November 2025. That is meaningful growth in percentage terms but still leaves the house an order of magnitude below the top-10 AMCs.

Leadership

  • Anthony Heredia, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Heredia is a long-standing figure in the Indian mutual fund industry and has served terms in AMFI leadership.
  • Krishna Sanghavi, Chief Investment Officer for Equity, who runs the equity desk.
  • Rahul Pal, Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income.

The equity fund-management bench includes Fatema Pacha, Renjith Sivaram Radhakrishnan and others; the fixed-income side is run by Rahul Pal with Amit Garg and Kush Sonigara among the named managers and analysts.

Schemes

Mahindra Manulife runs across the standard SEBI categorisation framework, weighted towards equity.

SchemeCategoryNotes
Mahindra Manulife Multi Cap FundMulti capCompliant with the post-September 2020 multi-cap reclassification minimum-allocation rule
Mahindra Manulife Flexi Cap FundFlexi capPan-capitalisation mandate without minimum-allocation floors
Mahindra Manulife Large & Mid Cap FundLarge & mid capBimodal capitalisation mandate
Mahindra Manulife Mid Cap FundMid capMid-cap mandate
Mahindra Manulife Small Cap FundSmall capSmall-cap mandate
Mahindra Manulife ELSS Tax Saver FundELSSSection 80C tax-saving equity scheme with a three-year lock-in
Mahindra Manulife Focused FundFocusedConcentrated portfolio of up to 30 stocks
Mahindra Manulife Aggressive Hybrid FundAggressive hybridEquity-tilted hybrid
Mahindra Manulife Balanced Advantage FundBalanced advantageDynamic equity-debt allocation
Mahindra Manulife Arbitrage FundArbitrageCash-futures arbitrage
Mahindra Manulife Liquid FundLiquidTreasury and short-term cash parking

The debt range adds ultra-short, low-duration, short-duration and dynamic-bond schemes, and the passive range carries index funds and ETFs tracking major indices. The equity-heavy skew matches the JV’s stated aim of converting first-time SIP investors from the Mahindra catchment rather than chasing institutional debt mandates.

Distribution and platforms

CAMS is the registrar and transfer agent. The AMC distributes through:

Both regular and direct plans are available; the direct mutual fund portals comparison covers the lower-cost direct-plan routes. The Mahindra group’s wider financial-services play, including Mahindra Rural Housing Finance and Mahindra Insurance Brokers, supplies customer-acquisition overlap in semi-urban India that most stand-alone AMCs lack.

Where it sits in the industry

Mahindra Manulife is a lower-mid-tier AMC. Its distinguishing feature is the JV structure that marries domestic distribution with a foreign manager’s product expertise, a pattern shared with Mirae Asset Mutual Fund , HSBC Mutual Fund , Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund and Canara Robeco Mutual Fund . Unlike Mirae, which scaled into the top tier, Mahindra Manulife remains an order of magnitude smaller, sitting nearer houses such as Bandhan Mutual Fund and the larger boutiques than the bank-sponsored leaders.

How to invest in Mahindra Manulife schemes

Complete one-time mutual fund KYC before the first purchase. After that, the simplest direct-plan route is the AMC site or a registrar portal such as CAMS Online ; the distribution platforms above offer both plan types. For investors weighing where to start, the how to choose an AMC and how to buy your first mutual fund on Coin guides set out the mechanics, and a SIP is the standard entry point for the first-time investors the house targets.

Investor servicing, grievances and oversight

CAMS handles folio servicing, account statements and capital-gains statements. Grievances follow the mutual fund grievance redressal ladder: AMC first, then AMFI under the investor grievance matrix , then SEBI via the SCORES portal . Every scheme document carries the AMFI Risk-o-meter classification, and the trustee company supervises the AMC independently of both joint-venture partners.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund?
Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund is a 51:49 joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited, the Mahindra group’s NBFC, and Manulife Investment Management (Singapore) Pte Ltd, part of the Canadian financial group Manulife. Manulife completed its 49 per cent acquisition on 29 April 2020 for about Rs 265 crore, and the AMC, previously the wholly owned Mahindra Asset Management Company, was rebranded under the Mahindra Manulife banner.
What is the AUM of Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund?
Mahindra Manulife managed about Rs 29,590 crore across roughly 57 schemes as of June 2025, rising to about Rs 33,324 crore by November 2025, which keeps it in the lower-mid tier of Indian AMCs by assets. Refer to the AMFI quarterly average AUM release for the current dated figure.
What happened to Mahindra Mutual Fund?
The AMC began as Mahindra Asset Management Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services that launched its first schemes in 2016. In April 2020 Manulife Investment Management (Singapore) acquired a 49 per cent stake and the fund house was rebranded Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund.
Who is the CEO of Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund?
Anthony Heredia is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Krishna Sanghavi is Chief Investment Officer for Equity and Rahul Pal is Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income.
Is Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund safe?
Mahindra Manulife operates under SEBI registration and the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, with an independent trustee company overseeing scheme governance. Registration and trustee oversight address operational and governance risk, but scheme returns stay subject to market risk and are not guaranteed.

See also

External references

References

  1. SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, Government of India.
  2. Manulife, “Manulife Investment Management acquires 49 percent in Mahindra Asset Management Company”, press release, April 2020, manulife.com.
  3. AMFI quarterly average assets under management data, quarter ended June 2025, Association of Mutual Funds in India.
  4. Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund scheme information documents and key people listing, mahindramanulife.com.
  5. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services annual report disclosures on the AMC joint venture.

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