And even as the change in the equity structure of Birla Asset Management Company is still being finalised, a top official of the company has said that there is going to be no change in the focus of the asset management arm of the Birla group which currently manages a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore.

Capital International has a 40 per cent stake in Birla Capital International AMC Ltd. This will first be bought by the Birla group which in turn would sell off an additional 10 per cent (total 50 per cent) in the AMC to Sun Life Assurance.

``The thinking process usually associated with change of management at the helm is that there will be a transformation in the manner in which business was being carried out. But, the factin our case is that when Capital International was a part of the business, they were not involved at the micro-level management of business. After the new joint venture comes into effect with Sun Life Assurance Company there will not be any change,'' said the senior vice-president & chief of business development at Birla Mutual Fund, NK Sharma.

``The amount of consideration at which the stake will be bought from Capital International and at which it will be sold to Sun Life is still being worked out, details of which will be known later,'' said Sharma.

According to Sharma, there will not be any discontinuity in the management of funds. ``There is no change in strategy, in the management of funds, marketing and distribution. The assets of the company will stay-put. It is only that whatever expertise that Sun Life has in terms of technology, global experience, mind-set among other things will be shared across the board and incorporated into the business. But, do not expect some radical changes in the wayBirla mutual fund is being run,'' said Sharma. The AV Birla Group has identified financial services as a major thrust area and the insurance business and the asset management business will form two major blocks of business, said Sharma.

On December 16, the AV Birla group had announced its parting with Capital International Group and tieup with Sun Life Assurance of Canada. The Birla group officials had said that there would be four companies formed as a result of the memorandum of understanding with Sun Life. They will operate in the areas of distribution of financial services products of Birla group and others including asset management, stock broking and insurance. Sun Life Insurance is a 127-year old diversifies global financial services company with total assets under management of about $ 300 billion and surplus of $ 8.5 billion.

Most of the new activities will have a significant overlap, and to optimise synergy and reduce potential business conflicts the group has chosen to have a single foreignpartner.