AMC quarterly earnings dented by impact of West Asia conflict on other income despite steady fees

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Asset management companies (AMCs) largely held up their full-year earnings performance in FY26, but mark-to-market losses stemming from the West Asia conflict dented their latest quarterly profit. Listed AMCs recorded a sequential decrease in net profit or a loss in the January-March quarter.ICICI Prudential AMC reported a 16.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline in net profit to ₹763 crore in Q4.

HDFC AMC’s net profit fell 19% to ₹623 crore, while Nippon India AMC’s earnings declined 5% to ₹384 crore and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC reported a 31% drop in net profit. UTI AMC swung to a loss of ₹51 crore from a profit in the preceding quarter.Analysts said earnings were not impacted by management fees, which are linked to the assets that AMCs manage.

A fall in assets under management leads to lower income for mutual funds. However, the average assets of mutual funds during the January-to-March quarter were more or less stagnant, which means the drop in profit was not necessarily due to lower fees, analysts said.Revenue for AMCs depends on quarterly average assets, which stayed largely flat because the market correction happened in March, so fee income remained steady, said Abhinav Tiwari, a research analyst at Bonanza.“The real impact came from other income, where AMCs invest their own money.

As the markets fell sharply in the March quarter end, these portfolios saw losses, dragging down reported profits,” Tiwari said.The AMCs acknowledged that mark-to-market losses impacted their other income."Our Q4FY26 profit after tax was at ₹187 crore as compared to ₹228 crore,” A. Balasubramanian, MD and CEO at Aditya Birla Sun Life, told investors on a call on 29 April.