Lotus India plans global stock fund

MUMBAI, May 20 (Reuters) - Lotus India Asset Management plans to launch an equity fund that will invest at least a fourth of its assets in units of overseas mutual funds, the firm said in an offer document filed with the market regulator on Tuesday.

Lotus India Global Opportunities Fund will allocate at least 65 percent of its assets to Indian stocks and 25 percent to 35 percent to overseas funds. It can also invest up to a tenth of the assets in debt and money market instruments, the firm said.

The fund house, a joint venture between Fullerton Fund Management, a unit of Singapore's state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], and London-based Sabre Capital Worldwide, has identified Fullerton Global Equities Fund to invest overseas.

Lotus joins more than a dozen Indian firms who are trying to take advantage of relaxed norms and offer diversification to domestic investors who have so far tended to stick to local stocks, which have boomed in the past five years, and bonds.

India had 18 internationally-invested funds managing about 105 billion rupees at the end of February, nearly five times the amount they held a year ago, when there were only two such funds, data from fund tracker ICRA showed.

The trigger has been more liberal norms set by India in 2006/07 allowing local fund firms to invest freely in global stocks and gradual increase in the cap to $7 billion now.

For a chronology on the key dates and developments that have led to a slew of globally-invested fund launches in the country, double click on [ID:nBOM140293]. (Reporting by Nishant Kumar; editing by Ramya Venugopal)