Gold investment to rise in India

Kolkata, Apr 9: AIG Investments, India Asset Management Company CEO Saurabh Sonthalia today said that people have traditionally opted to invest in gold and the trend is going to increase in India in the coming yhears. Speaking at the launch of AIG Gold World Gold Fund, an open ended Fund of Funds scheme, Mr Sonthalia said companies from all over the world have realised the benefits of investing in gold, especially in India.

''We are here to seek investors to India so that we can utilise the funds from this scheme for investing in companies engaged in extracting, processing and marketing of gold, especially the one in Switzerland that was operational from 1992,'' he said. Mr Sonthalia said that gold mining is being done in countries all over the world, including Australia, South Africa, Canada and China.

The primary investment objective of the scheme is to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in units of AIG PB Equity Fund Gold based in Zurich.

The New Fund offer will be open for purchase from April 15 - May 14. Not mentioning any target for the fiscal 2008-09, he said, ''We are going for an open ended fund of funds, if need be we will reopen the scheme in the future.'' Asked about any other country where they may be seeking investors, Mr Sonthalia said they were presently looking for investment only in India and this scheme will fund the Switzerland project.

Speaking at the launch, AIG - India Country Head and Chief Executive Sunil Mehta said, ''Keeping in mind the strong fundamentals of gold as an asset class, this fund would be an ideal supplement to our existing range of innovative investment products.'' Also present on the occasion was AIG Investments's fund managing New York-based company Van Eck World Funds Portfolio Manager Joseph M Foster.

UNI