Talwar & Temasek to bring $5 B to India
By agencies   |   Monday, 04 July 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Sabre Capital Worldwide Inc.of former Standard Chartered Chief Executive, is teaming up with Singapore state-owned investor Temasek Holdings Pte to raise as much as $5 billion to invest in Indian equities and bonds. The partners will this week apply for a license from India's market regulator for the fund, which has been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, said Rajiv Maliwal, a Singapore-based managing director at Sabre, which has offices in the city-state and London. “We will raise somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion in the next five years, both offshore and in India, destined for investment in Indian equity and fixed-income markets,” said Maliwal. Temasek, which last month won permission to increase investments in India, and Sabre are seeking to tap a $661 billion economy the government expects to expand 7 per cent in the year to March. Interest rates that are near a 32-year low have bolstered corporate profits and lifted the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex by 50 per cent in the past year. The planned investment, equal to more than half what overseas funds pumped into Indian equities and bonds all of last year, indicates “India's growth potential and the kind of returns investors expect,” said Viswanathan Vasudev, who helps manage $150 million of stocks at Aquarius Investment Advisors in Singapore. “It reflects India's long-term potential.”

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