Fullerton Fund Management Co, owned by Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, bought a stake in Indian film distributor Eros International Plc, gaining a foothold in Bollywood.
Temasek purchased a stake through one of its units on November 13, the day Mumbai-based Eros began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a November 25 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Fullerton now holds 8.7 per cent in Eros, valuing the stake at about $22 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The filing didn't say what Fullerton's previous stake in Eros was.
Singapore's government-owned investment firms have expanded in India to capture growing wealth in Asia's third-largest economy. Temasek invested $102 million in Godrej Agrovet Ltd, a producer of agricultural products, in its financial year ended March, while GIC Pte last week said it plans to invest as much as $480 million in Indian real estate.
"Eros International's rationale to get NYSE-listing was to get a wider range of investors, which has been proven right by the Temasek investment," Urmil Shah, a Mumbai-based analyst at Kim Eng Securities Pvt, said in a phone interview.
