Csfb To Venture Into Fixed Income Ops, Amc To Follow

C S First Boston has decided to expand its operations in India and will now move into fixed income operations. The firm also aims at moving into trading and dealing of government securities for which a satellite dealership would be acquired later.

According to top CSFB officials in India, plans for an asset management company to manage debt funds will be worked out later with CSFB having received the clearance for investing $200 million. The money would be invested in debt markets at an opportune moment, the officials said.

Confirming details of their future Indian operations, K R Bharat, managing director, CSFB (India), said, At a time when our competition is winding down operations in the region and India, our decision to hike our capital in the Indian subsidiary to $40 million is the best way of saying that we are have a long-term commitment to the Indian market.

 

Globally, CSFB has assets under management of nearly $400 billion with a presence in 30 countries through 50 offices. The CSFB India operations, besides its director, consists of 17 members with six in research, three in sales/dealing and others as back office support staff. The firm is currently identifying its personnel to manage the fixed income operations.

The bank had, earlier this week, received FIPB clearance to increase its equity base, and start offering portfolio and asset management.

CSFB had applied to the FIPB seeking to enhance its equity base in India from $ 6.6 million to $ 40 million, thereby making it the highest capitalised FII house in the country. The CSFB expansion comes at a time when most investment banks and FII securities firms are either downsizing Indian operations or shifting their focus out of equities.

CSFB (India) Securities, having commenced its broking operations on October 20, 1997, is amongst the top brokerages amongst FIIs in the country.