The deal is also likely to trigger more interest in the country's oldest mutual fund UTI Asset Management Company's proposed stake sale.

Eton Park bought 5 per cent stake in Reliance AMC for Rs 501 crore (Rs 5.01 billion), valuing the Anil Ambani-controlled AMC in excess of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).

"It makes a lot of sense for any player to buy into an AMC, especially if it happens to be one of the top AMCs. The industry may witness a lot of consolidation and with bigger AMCs buying into smaller ones, there is a lot of value in buying stakes in the top AMCs," said Huzefa Sitabkhan, investment banking, IDBI Capital.

Reliance capital [Get Quote] executives said the AMC was already operating in 300 cities across India and was planning a big push in more tier-II and tier-III towns.

Besides, it plans to tap the non-resident Indians (NRIs) in several cities in the US, the UK and Singapore through more outlets in these countries.

"While valuations in India tend to be much higher than those abroad since India is still a growing market, several issues like goodwill, brand, preferential access to a distribution network and not assets under management alone determine the true valuation," said an official from a mutual fund house involved in a similar stake sale.

He further added that the overall valuation of an AMC would also depend on whether the prospective partner was a financial or a strategic partner.