Calcutta, Dec. 29: Karan Trehan is selling his 25 per cent stake in Alliance Capital Mutual Fund, along with New York-based Alliance Capital Management, which has already announced its intentions of selling its 75 per cent stake in it.

Trehan, who holds 25 per cent in Alliance through investment firm Ankar Capital India Pvt Ltd, is a director on the board of the mutual fund.

More than half-a-dozen mutual funds have evinced interest in acquiring Alliance. The Black Stone group of New York is acting as investment banker for the mutual fund.

Interested parties have already sent indicative bids and have been told that the sale will be completed by March.

Alliance manages close to Rs 3,800 crore in assets. Industry sources say the promoters of the mutual fund—its US-based principals and Trehan—expect a price of around Rs 200 crore, which is a little over 5 per cent of Alliance’s assets.

Stanchart Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential are believed to be among the front-runners in the race for Alliance. “They are being seen as the most aggressive bidders,” a chief executive of one of the bidders said.

Other contenders include Birla Sun Life, Kotak Mahindra, Sun F&C, Franklin Templeton and HDFC Mutual Fund. Those short-listed in the first round of bidding will be invited to conduct a due diligence exercise.

Despite the aggressive bidding, most bidders are not willing to pay a price of more than 3-4 per cent of the assets under management.