Permal launches India fund

Permal Group, one of the largest fund-of-hedge-funds organisations in the world, has launched Permal India Holdings, a multi-manager, multi-strategy India-focused fund.

“We believe India to be well-suited for a multi-manager approach due to its diversity, growth prospects and inherent volatility,” said Omar Kodmani, the group’s senior executive officer in London. “We felt it was timely to enter the market, for there are some great investment opportunities, as well as a number of highly talented fund managers.”

Permal finds India an attractive investment opportunity for several reasons. It is the fourth largest economy in the world – measured by GDP – and is growing at 7%-8% per year. It also has well-developed capital markets, including a fairly robust futures and options market on both indexes and single stocks. The Indian government also continues to allow investment from foreign institutions into more sectors of the Indian economy.

The CNX Nifty, which is an index of the top 50 stocks in the Indian equity markets, has since 1994 produced an annualised return of 8.6%, with virtually all the appreciation occurring over the last three years. Over the past year the Index has averaged 39% and 40% per annum over three years.