Old Mutual May Tie Up With Kotak Mfs Abroad

Mumbai: Old Mutual Plc may join hands with Kotak Mahindra mutual fund for managing overseas investments. This was an opportunity for the company, particularly in the wake of the RBI liberalising the overall limit of mutual fund investment overseas. Its core geographical areas in fund management are the US, the UK and South Africa. So, it hopes could help Indian regulated mutual funds to invest in these countries. The inverse situation of Indian fund managers helping their overseas counterparts in Old Mutual could also be looked at. The London-based Old Mutual Plc has operations in life insurance, asset management, banking and general insurance and is present in India through a life insurance joint venture with Kotak Mahindra. The RBI, on Sept 25, increased the aggregate mutual fund investment limit overseas from $4 billion to $5 billion. Old Mutual Plc was optimistic on India and will commit resources to building the business here as fast as possible. The company will also like to increase its stake to 49 per cent, from the current 26 per cent when the Foreign Direct Investment regulations are amended.