The Boston Behemoth has left the subcontinent--more or less.

Fidelity [profile] has completed its sale of its Indian mutual fund business to Larsen & Toubro Group's L&T Finance Ltd., according to two Indian publications: The Business Standard and CafeMutual.

According to the Business Standard, this is one of the largest M&A deals in India's mutual fund industry in recent past. Though the deal was inked for an undisclosed amount, company officials had pegged the deal at around Rs 550-600 crore. (A crore in the South Asian numeric system represents 10 million, so this translates into Rs 5.5 to 6.0 billion.)

The Business Standard reports that the fund house, which has seen exits of several high level executives ,has Ashu Suyash as its new chief executive officer.  The company also has appointed former S N Lahiri as head of equities. Prior to joining L&T, Lahiri was at Canara Robeco AMC.

According to CafeMutual, L&T MF has over Rs 12,800 crore (or Rs 128 billion) in managed assets and an investor base of close to 9.5 lakh (A lakh signifies 100,000 so this translates into 950,000) from around 200 cities and towns.

Moreover, CafeMutual reports that the fund house will now be offering 25 funds, including: L&T Tax Advantage Fund, L&T Equity Fund, L&T India Large Cap Fund, L&T Triple Ace Bond Fund, L&T India Special Situations Fund and the L&T Global Real Assets Fund, which feeds into Fidelity’s Luxembourg-based SICAV – Fidelity Funds Global Real Asset Securities Fund.  

This deal had been in the works as early as March, according to MFWire. Fidelity's Indian operations had reported losses each year since opening in 2004. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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