Prudential, DLF get in-principle nod for fund unit

MUMBAI: India's most valuable real estate firm, DLF Ltd, and American life insurer Prudential Financial Inc (PFI) said they have an in-principle regulatory approval for a mutual fund venture formed in December.

"We look forward to a successful launch once we receive the remaining regulatory approvals, which should take place sometime in 2009," Rajeev Talwar, group executive director of DLF, said in a joint statement with Christopher Cooper, chairman of PFI's international investments unit on Tuesday.

The fund venture, DLF Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt Ltd, is headed by Vijay Mantri, who joined in April from the Indian fund unit of Deutsche Bank.

DLF Pramerica joins more than 20 firms looking to break into the Indian fund industry, which saw its assets grow more than four-fold to Rs 5.5 trillion in five year ending 2007.

Assets have shrunk 28 percent to Rs 3.9 trillion this year due to a stunning 51.5 percent slump in India's benchmark index and outflows from fixed income fund