The Hindu Business Line : Deutsche Asset launches offshore India funds

The advisory approval allows the Mumbai-based Indian equity team to provide research recommendations, model portfolios and inputs on sectors and broader economy to the Singapore-authorised Deutsche India Equity Fund.

The latter is managed by Deutsche Asset Management (Asia) Ltd in Singapore.

"The popularity of India funds for Japanese investors is set to grow following the recent success of China funds in that country," said a release issued by the asset management firm.

It added that investors are looking to diversify in emerging markets and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.

The release has quoted Mr Sandeep Dasgupta, CEO of Deutsche MF, as stating that the BRIC nations are being particularly viewed as having strong growth potential.

Deutsche Asset Management has also said that it has moved early to strengthen its investment base in India, billed as an attractive investment destination.

The Deutsche India Equity Fund, which is available to retail and institutional investors in Singapore, will also form the main component of the new Deutsche India Stock Fund targeted at Japanese retail investors.

Deutsche India Stock Fund is a fund of funds (FoF) established in Japan. It seeks to achieve medium- to long-term capital gains mainly through exposure to Indian equities.

In another development, Deutsche Asset Management in Japan has been named as investment manager of the UFJ Partners Deutsche India Stock Fund.

This open-ended FoF will be offered to Japanese investors via UFJ Tsubasa Securities.

It will allocate a large slice of its assets to Deutsche India Equity Fund.

Deutsche Bank in India, which operates through five branches, is represented by, inter alia, the asset management business.

Deutsche MF manages a number of funds, including the flagship Deutsche Alpha Equity Fund.

Globally, Deutsche Asset Management is currently one of the largest fund houses.

It manages 30 billion euros (as of end-October 2004) on behalf of institutional and retail clients in the Asia-Pacific.