L&T Finance to enter mutual fund business

Buoyed by 'extremely good response' for its debenture issue, L&T Finance on Wednesday said it is open to enter into the mutual fund business through both organic and inorganic routes.

"Mutual fund is an area of interest for us. There are options for both organic and inorganic routes for that. We will look at them and evaluate them," L&T executive vice-president (financial services) N Sivaraman said.

There were enough mutual fund players to talk to who are particularly available for purchase, he said.

Sivaraman's observation came in the face of reports that L&T Finance may be looking at acquiring DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management Company, which manages funds in excess of Rs 2,000 crore as on May 18, 2009.

To a pointed question whether the company was in talks with DCAM for acquisition, he said, "We don't want to comment on any particular company."

Established in 1996, DCAM is a subsidiary of Cholamandalam DBS Finance, a joint venture between India's Murugappa Group and Singapore's DBS Bank.

DCAM offers 18 schemes and covers an entire range of cash, debt and equity asset classes. It had posted a loss before tax of Rs 5.32 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.