Citigroup to showcase India to investors

By agencies   |   Monday, 06 March 2006, 20:30 IST
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MUMBAI: After the visit of President George W Bush lifted Indo-US ties to a higher plane, American financial services giant Citigroup is set to hold its first-ever global investors’ conference in India. The three-day Citigroup India Investor Conference 2006 will showcase India to over 150 top institutional investors from the U.S., Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Japan in Mumbai and Delhi. Speaking to on this, Robert Morse, CEO, Asia-Pacific, Citigroup corporate & investment banking, said, “Indian operations are very important for Citigroup and it is one of our five top-priority countries.” Over 70 leading Indian corporates, including large cap companies and many mid-cap firms, will make presentations to institutional investors attending the conference. External experts, policy makers from India and macro-economists have also been invited to provide investors a feel of the India growth story. “This is an important conference as funds with no India exposure have been under-performing. It will spread the India story in the relevant circle as the bluest of blue-chip companies will make presentations to global fund houses,” he added. The conference happens amid an unrelenting rise in the Indian equities market. The Sensex has risen by about 1,200 points since the beginning of 2006. Morse said, “The Indian government and the regulators have a done a great job in developing the capital markets. Indian corporations are very competitive.” With over 15,000 employees, India accounts for 5 percent of the global staff strength of the group. It has about $1 billion of capital invested in India and $10 billion worth of assets. “We continue to introduce new products and services to serve our demanding and sophisticated Indian clients and continue to invest heavily in some of the critical priority lending sectors,” he added.