Franklin Templeton to buy 100 pc stake in its Indian Asset mgmt arm

Mumbai, Nov 14 (UNI) Franklin Templeton Investments today announced that they have agreed in principle to acquire full control of it's joint venture in India, Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India).

However, the decision is subject to regulatory approvals and to execution of a formal agreement, they added.

Franklin Templeton will buy out the 25 per cent stake in the AMC (asset management company)'s total equity paid-up capital held by Hathway Investments, a member of the Rajan Raheja group of companies, said a Franklin Templeton release here.

Commenting on the development, Mr Vijay Advani, Executive Vice President, Franklin Resources Inc, said, ''The full acquisition of our Indian asset management arm reinforces Franklin Templeton's long-term commitment to India, a journey that had started back in 1995. Over this period, Rajan Raheja has made a strong contribution to our success in India and provided valuable guidance to make the partnership successful. We hope to find new opportunities to work with him again in the future. In India, we are proud to have participated in the metamorphosis of the financial services landscape from an early stage and to have contributed significantly to the development of the domestic mutual fund industry.'' ''Franklin Templeton has built a strong presence in India and we are very excited about the tremendous growth potential for our business moving forward,'' added Mr Vivek Kudva, President of Franklin Templeton Investments (India).

Sharing his views, Mr Rajan Raheja, said, ''We are happy to have played a part in building a strong financial institution that is amongst the leading fund houses in the country and look forward to seeing Franklin Templeton scale new heights in the years to come.

While we will not be an active participant, our best wishes are with Franklin Templeton in all its future endeavors.'' UNI SN WD SKB1810