ABN Amro may launch realty fund

Indian investors may soon be able to take a bet on global property market prices.

ABN-Amro Mutual Fund has filed with the capital markets regulator, Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi), for a scheme that will invest in real estate companies and leading property companies worldwide.

The ABN-Amro Global Property (India) Equity Fund, which awaits the regulator's nod, will invest in foreign equity and equity-related securities through ABN"�Amro's Luxembourg-based ABN-Amro Global Property Equity Fund. The latter is a diversified, actively managed fund mainly investing in realty companies and top property companies across the globe.

Last year, the market regulator further liberalised rules to allow mutual funds to launch schemes that will invest in overseas equity or equity-oriented schemes, in a move to provide more diversified products to the Indian retail investors.

Following this, Principal PNB Mutual tweaked its existing scheme to invest in equities of emerging markets while Franklin Templeton launched a scheme that would partly invest in overseas equity. But, no fund house launched a scheme for overseas realty companies. The move by ABN-Amro Mutual Fund coincides with Sebi's own plan to allow India-registered mutual funds to launch real estate funds.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows resident Indians to invest $50,000 per annum overseas. Analysts said, the ABN-Amro scheme was aimed at this segment.

Officials at ABN-Amro were not available for comments as the rules barred them from talking about a scheme before getting Sebi's approval.

In its filings, ABN-Amro said, the portfolio would invest in stocks of different countries, but the investment manager of the proposed scheme would ensure that the exposure to each country was limited so that the portfolio was not exposed to one country.