Bank of Baroda signs deal for mutual fund JV with Pioneer Group

The Indian public sector bank, Bank of Baroda (BOB) signed a joint venture agreement with Pioneer Investments Management Ltd with 51% stake in the existing Bank of Baroda Asset Management Co. (AMC) Ltd that currently manages AUM of Rs 41 crore (as on 30TH June, 2008). The AMC will be renamed Baroda Pioneer Asset Management once the deal is complete. The Pioneer Group manages assets worth more than €237.5 billion (as on 30 June, Rs. 13.04 trillion then) and is present in more than 20 countries worldwide. The group is also looking at including an Indian product in the groups international fund umbrella which is distributed across Europe and the US. Pioneer is two times the size of what they were six years earlier and can make investments as required into India, Pioneer is re-entering the mutual fund business in India before in 1993, it had entered into a 50-50 joint venture with the Chennai-based Shyam Kothari family (through ITI, or Investment Trust of India). The joint venture would help the bank enlarge its basket of products to 29 million global customers with existing 1,100 branches in India and plans to open ten overseas branches in 2008-09, more than 63 offices abroad whereas on the domestic front, the bank plans to add 91 branches by September.