India need to remove obstacles limiting investments in its retail and financial sectors to show it is committed to long-term reforms to open up the economy, a leading US trade official said on Wednesday.
"Opening India’s retail sector to foreign multi-brand retailers will allow Indian consumers access to the best products at the lowest prices, and will improve supply chain efficiencies," Franklin Lavin, US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, told a summit of US and Indian business executives.

"Regardless of newspaper stories today about cracks in the dam on retail access, the fact is that barriers remain," he said.

On Monday, Bharti Enterprises announced a tie-up with US retailer Wal-Mart Stores. The stores, to be owned by Bharti Enterprises under the Wal-Mart franchise, are expected to sell a wide range of goods, including food.

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India’s Reliance Capital Asset Management is planning to establish a brokerage house branch in the UAE.

"We are planning to launch our brokerage services branch in the UAE, and we are awaiting approval from the concerned authorities," RCAM’s Chief Investment Officer, K Rajagopal, said.

"We will also be seeking a presence at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) at a later stage," he was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

Subscriptions to RCAM’s new closed-end fund closed in the UAE, with the company expecting subscriptions from India and overseas of $300 million.

Rajagopal, who is heading a mission to Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE, to market a new open-ended long-term fund, said "the UAE’s Non-Resident Indian community comes at the top Middle East based investor in our funds, and we are expecting to collect $75 million to $100 million from the region."

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$49.98 billion invested in equities, $1.08 billion in debt.

Foreign institutional investors� (FIIs) net investment in India has surpassed $50 billion.

Ever since the government opened the doors for the overseas portfolio investors in 1993, FIIs have invested $49.98 billion in the equities till date.

Taking into consideration their $1.08 billion investments in the debt market, total FII investment, as on on Tuesday, was pegged at $51.06 billion. In rupee terms, their investments were Rs 2,16,048 crore.

Between April 1993, when the FIIs started investing in Indian markets, and now, they have bought shares worth Rs 12,83,336 crore and sold shares worth Rs 10,67,319 crore.

Although their investment aggregated at $50 billion now, the market value of the investment at the current exchange rate of Rs 44.68 per dollar is a whopping $ 117.13 billion (Rs 5,25,280 crore).

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To acquire 14.9 per cent stake for Rs. 59.25 cr and 17,08,344 cumulatively totalling to Rs. 90 cr
Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership Mauritius Limited an investment company within the structure of the Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership funds, is considering acquiring 3,291,656 equity shares of leading edible oil company K.S, Oils Limited at a price of Rs. 180 per share for a total investment not exceeding Rs. 592,498,080. CVCIGPML is also considering subscribing to up to 1?708,344 warrants each convertible into one equity share at Rs.180 each, The above investment is subject to various conditions, such as approval of the shareholders of the Company.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited, Mumbai, was K.S. Oils� exclusive Financial Advisor for the above-mentioned fund raising assignment. T.S. Kandhari - Executive Director and Rajesh Vig - Senior Manager led the mandate from PricewaterhouseCoopers

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India will pursue policies aimed at allowing more overseas companies into the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said, easing investor concerns about opposition to the investment plans by government allies.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2 1/2-year-old ruling coalition faces resistance from its Communist partners in relaxing rules to permit more overseas investments, which the nation needs to accelerate economic growth and cut poverty.

The four Communist parties that support Singh’s United Progressive Alliance have blocked plans to increase foreign ownership of insurers and give overseas investors greater voting rights in local non-state lenders such as HDFC Bank Ltd. That’s scuttled plans to make headway in easing foreign investment rules in other areas such as mining and retail.

"In the past 10 years, we’ve had four governments, five prime ministers but only one direction in economic policy," Nath told the India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum in New Delhi Monday. "Reforms are here to stay."

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Nedbank and the Netherlands’ biggest bank ABN AMRO have formed an investment banking alliance to give South African clients access to international markets, the companies said on Monday.

The firms said in a statement the partnership would offer investment grade and high-yield corporate bonds, syndicated loans, offshore corporate leverage and acquisition finance.

It would also offer international equity listings, rights issues and secondary block trades. The companies would share equity research.

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