ABN AMRO raises Rs255 crore for investments in India, China

Mumbai: ABN AMRO Asset Management (India) Ltd has raised around Rs255 crore in its international equity fund that would invest in Indian and Chinese markets, the company said.

The fund house managed assets worth about Rs7,000 crore at the end of September, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.

ABN Amro Bank India is likely to get a makeover, which could see the bank selling its interests in asset management. The move follows the acquisition of ABN Amro bank by a consortium of investors led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fortis and Banco Santander.

According to an arrangement worked out among three parties, the Asian operations comes under the control of RBS, which wants to focus on retail banking and corporate banking in the coming days.

ABN Amro''s had nearly Rs7,000 crore of assets under management in India as of September 30 and the bank has already initiated talks with Fortis for selling this business.

The Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance major Fortis has a small presence in India. Last year, along with IDBI and Federal Bank, ABN Amro India had floated a life insurance company.

The ABN Amro name is expected to change to RBS in the future. RBS, which had applied for a licence to open a representative office in India in June this year, will be withdrawing its application from the RBI. This is because with its takeover of ABN Amro, it gets the banks assets in India too and need not start from scratch.

ABN Amro Bank India, started in 1920 with its first branch in Kolkata, has a balance sheet of Rs32,078 crore with net profits of around Rs385 crore as of March 31, 2007.