Goldman Sachs Asset Management Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS),that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch a wholly- owned asset management and mutual fund business in the country, joining the likes of AIG, JPMorgan and South Korea's Mirae Asset who have started operations in the past 18 months. Adam Broder will be the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Company (India) Pvt Ltd and Prashant Khemka will be chief investment officer, the firm said in a statement on Monday.
In a press note issued from the company, Broder said, "India is one of the most important countries to our Asian business and we have a long-term strategic commitment to this market”.
"It is our goal to emerge as a world class asset manager in India, by drawing synergies from our global expertise and combining them with our proven risk management techniques to deliver strong and consistent results for our investing clients," said Khemka.
India's 35 member funds industry managed about 5.4 trillion rupees ($125 billion) at the end of July, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.
Foreign Asset Managers Setting Up Asset Management Operations In India
There are that Insurer Allianz is also entering the asset management business in India through a joint venture. There are many asset management joint ventures already operating in India.
By July end, India’s top 5 fund joint ventures in terms of assets under management include: British financial services firm Prudential Plc which has a 49 percent stake in ICICI Prudential Asset Management with ICICI Bank holding the rest. The fund house managed 551.61 billion rupees ($12.6 billion) in July.
- Britain's Standard Life Investments holds a 40 percent stake in HDFC Asset Management with HDFC Bank Ltd, the majority partner.The firm managed 507.52 billion rupees in July.
-- Birla Sun Life Asset Management , an equal joint venture between India's Aditya Birla Group and Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial managed 374.97 billion rupees in July
-- French bank Societe Generale holds a 37 percent stake in SBI Funds Management, with State Bank of India, India's largest bank, holding a majority stake. The fund house managed 291.51 billion rupees in July.
-- DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd, a unit of investment bank Merrill Lynch holds a 40 percent stake in DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers, which controlled about 194.83 billion rupees in July. The remaining 60 percent is held by Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch, and two other firms.
In January, BlackRock Inc the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, said it would buy Merrill's 40 percent stake in the Indian asset manager. The deal is awaiting regulatory approval.
