New Delhi: Lotus India Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Fullerton Fund Management Group and Sabre Capital Worldwide, has received regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for starting its mutual fund operations in India.

The sponsor of Lotus India AMC is Alexandra Fund Management, an affiliate of Fullerton (both Fullerton and Alexandra are wholly owned by Temasek Holdings Private Ltd.)

Lotus India AMC has appointed Ajay Bagga, financial industry veteran, has been appointed CEO of Lotus India AMC.

"India is amongst the fastest growing economies in the world, with a robustly growing savings and investment pool which Lotus India AMC is well poised to tap and nurture," says Rana Talwar, chairman, Lotus India AMC, "Given the growth in mutual fund AUM of 61 per cent over the last year, and of 36 per cent over the last three years, coupled with a penetration of less than 2 per cent of households, we feel that the Indian mutual fund industry offers strong growth potential."

Talwar also said, "With 115 employees across 29 cities, and over 4000 distributor tie-ups, we already have the biggest ever infrastructure for an AMC at the launch stage in India. Our vision is to create a world class, global scale asset manager that can offer Indian investors solutions to their financial needs, across asset classes and across customer segments."

Gerard Lee, director, Lotus India AMC Pvt Ltd, said, "We have invested in and created a solid infrastructure in this AMC and will continue to invest in the future to create capacity in line with the true potential of the Indian fund management industry."

Ajay Bagga, CEO, Lotus India AMC said: "We have already invested in a scale that will allow us to rapidly build this business towards our objective of Rs25,000 crore of AUM within the first few years of operations. Over the next few quarters, we are targeting a presence in the top 100 cities and a distribution footprint that ranks among the top five AMCs in India. Our initial market research has shown a high level of acceptance for our team and our brand, and we look forward to living up to these expectations of both our distributors and our investors."

Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. (Fullerton) is a Singapore-based fund management house, established in December 2003. A wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings Pvt Ltd., it is also a leading fund management specialist in Asian traditional and alternative products, based in Singapore.

FFMC's fund management division deals in various asset classes like cash / money market, global equities, global fixed income, global currencies managed on a relative as well as absolute return basis.

Sabre Capital Worldwide Group (Sabre) is an team of bankers, led by Rana Talwar, with industry and emerging markets experience, extensive networks and relationships with customers, regulators, investors, other industry participants.