India's Quant Mutual Fund investors pull out "small" $167 million amid regulatory probe

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Quant Mutual Fund said on Thursday that its investors withdrew about 13.95 billion rupees ($167 million), a "small" figure", in the three days since the market regulator reportedly started a probe over allegations of "front running".

Local news media had on Sunday reported that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was investigating allegations of "front running"- or dealing on price-sensitive information before its general release - at the mutual fund.

In the three days since, net redemptions were 1.5% of its 930 billion rupees in assets under management (AUM), "which is a small figure," Quant told investors in an email seen by Reuters.

"We have received inquiries from the regulator, and we are in full co-operation with the concerned authorities. There since have been no further developments," Quant said, but again did not specify the nature of the enquiries.

Its cash and liquid investments were 53.49% of closing equity AUM of 882.7 billion rupees, said Quant, the country's fastest-growing fund house.

It said its "operations are running smoothly" even as the SEBI's investigation was ongoing.

Quant, which ranks No.18 in terms of AUM out of 44 asset managers in India, is an active investor in small-cap and mid-cap stocks, whose benchmark indexes have soared 69.48% and 59.28% respectively over the past 12 months. ($1 = 83.4374 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant and Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)