The Hindu : Business : BNP Paribas keen to help Indian investors

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Friday, Jul 21, 2006

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Business

BNP Paribas keen to help Indian investors

K. T. Jagannathan

Sundaram Mutual will be the adviser for all India-centric offshore funds

CHENNAI: The euro 285 billion BNP Paribas Asset Management Company of France is keen on providing Indian investors a window of opportunity to participate in overseas equity funds if and when the regulations permit.

In an interaction with The Hindu Group here on Wednesday, Gilles Glicenstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said BNP Paribas had picked up 49.9 per cent stake in the AMC promoted by Sundaram Mutual Fund not just to participate in India's growth story, but also to offer an expert escort service to Indians to invest in global funds as and when such overseas investments were allowed.

Mr. Glicenstein, who was on his first visit to Chennai, justified the JV (joint venture) route for BNP Paribas's entry into India. He said the Indian market required local research and Sundaram Mutual was good in that. Sundaram Mutual would be the adviser for all India-centric offshore funds floated by BNP Paribas. Sundram Mutual (now renamed Sundaram BNP Paribas) would be the adviser to the $170 million ParWest Fund.

The French AMC had also floated a BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) fund just a couple of months ago. Western investors, Mr. Glicenstein said, were increasingly convinced of the growth stories in India and China and the positive fall-out of their links with Brazil and Russia, which had rich natural resources.

He said BNP Paribas had JVs in other emerging markets like China, South Korea, Brazil and Turkey with close to $20 billion assets under management. It entered China earlier than India, though the nascent Chinese mutual fund market had its share of problems in getting good professionals and distributing the products.

India was, however, the first market that BNP Paribas entered when it developed an emerging market team way back in 1998. It did float an India fund that was managed from London. "The fund could not be sold because of tax curbs. It was not easy to sell then," he observed. He attributed this to a combination of factors ranging from the bursting of Internet bubble to the inability to view India from a non-IT (information technology) angle. Things had changed since then.

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