Groww offers to buy PGIM at 2018 price, Prudential wants more — Exclusive

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Fintech company Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd, popularly known as Groww, has emerged as the front-runner to acquire PGIM India Mutual Fund, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. All three requested anonymity, as the deal has not yet been closed."The deal is almost finalised. You can say that it is 90% complete. The valuation isn't going to go too much. It is going to be net worth plus 2% to 3% of the total assets under management of PGIM," said one of the three people quoted above.The AUM of PGIM Mutual Fund currently stands at almost ₹27,000 crore. The deal could therefore be in the range of ₹650 crore at the lower end of the offer and ₹925 crore at the upper end.Neither Groww nor PGIM India responded to the questions sent by CNBC-TV18 on Friday.Groww's offer for PGIM is slightly less than the price Prudential Financial paid to acquire DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers India Pvt. Ltd., which is now known as PGIM India Mutual Fund.The stagnant pricing can be attributed to the multiple years of losses at PGIM. The fund house had accumulated losses of ₹71 crore at the end of March 2025.Fund HouseDateValuationAUMValuation/AUMPGIM (Acquirer: Prudential)6/3/2026₹925 crore₹26952.48 crore3.43%ICICI Prudential AMC (IPO price)6/3/2026₹1.48 lakh crore₹1.1 lakh crore13.32%Edelweiss MF (Westbridge Capital bought 10% stake)6/3/2026₹3,000 crore₹1.6 lakh crore1.80%Source: BSE, Company Filings, CNBC-TV18 Research There are 16 bidders in the fray for the acquisition of PGIM India, including Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Premji Invest, and Kedaara Capital, according to a CEO at one of the firms that have bid for PGIM India, requesting anonymity. If Groww is successful in its bid, PGIM would enter a new phase with a new owner. In its earlier avatar, between 2016 and 2018, PGIM India Mutual Fund was a 50:50 joint venture between the now-defunct, Mumbai-based shadow bank Dewan Housing Finance Limited (India) and Pramerica Financial (Pramerica), a brand name used by the US-based insurer Prudential Financial, Inc. (PFI). In 2018, as DHFL neared bankruptcy, Prudential Financial acquired the remaining 50% stake in the fund house for an estimated ₹500 crore.

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