Update: After Kotak divestiture Goldman may invest $1 billion in India

Mumbai: Top Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs may invest up to $1 billion in India as it sets up its own investment bank in the country, a top executive said today.

"The Indian market represents tremendous growth and opportunity," Goldman Sachs (India) CEO Brooks Entwistle said in a statement. "In the first couple of years, we''d like to put $1 billion to work in our principal business," he said. The company is likely to look at direct investments in companies, real estate and a fund of funds. "We''re very focused on putting our own capital to work," Entwistle added.

Earlier on Thursday, Goldman announced that it had sold its stake in two Indian joint ventures for $74 million to partner Kotak Mahindra Bank, to set up its own investment banking and securities business in the country.

250 jobs to move to India?
The company is also set to cut 250 jobs across its global operations as it moves some work to India. Reports had indicated that it was planning to move part of its British administrative and IT departments to India later this year. Many other British firms have outsourced call centres or administrative work to India, including insurance majors Prudential and Aviva, as well as British Telecom.

Britain''s largest professional union, Amicus, warned that the decision could spark a "wave of copy cat actions" and the UK could lose tens of thousands of jobs. It said that analysts have estimated that 2 million jobs could migrate from European countries to English-speaking Asian countries by 2008. Some unions are seeking to halt this trend by persuading companies to sign agreements designed to protect jobs in the UK.