Zurich sells Indian asset business

Zurich has been shedding divisions in a bid to focus on its core businesses (ZFS) Zurich has been shedding divisions in a bid to focus on its core businesses (ZFS)

The Zurich Financial Services group has announced it has signed an agreement for the sale of its asset management business in India.

The deal was made with the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Mutual Fund, a joint venture with Britain’s Standard Life Investments.

HDFC has $1.45 billion (SFr1.96 billion) under management and is India’s third largest and fastest growing mutual fund, Zurich said in a statement.

The terms and conditions of the sale, which needs the approval of local regulatory authorities, have not been disclosed.

The statement said that Zurich’s asset management business in India had about $680 million assets under management. Zurich was confident that HDFC would continue to provide customers with a high level of service and fund performance, it added.

The agreed sale does not affect Zurich’s other businesses in India.

Dutch sale planned

In another development, the Zurich group announced plans on Monday for a large-scale withdrawal from the Dutch market.

The group said it was in talks with the SNS Reaal Groep about the possible sale of all Zurich’s Life operations, as well as Zurich’s Non-Life operations in the consumer and small business segments in the Netherlands.

SNS Reaal is a Dutch bancassurance group with total assets of just over €446 billion.

Zurich said it would continue to operate the non-life corporate businesses in the Netherlands through its business unit, Continental Europe Corporate.

A statement said that both companies would make no further statement until an agreement had been reached.

swissinfo with agencies