This has been stated by Dundee Bancorp's chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) Ned Goodman in his report to the holding company's shareholders.

Though the assets managed by Dundee in India are currently around $50 million (Rs 225 crore) only compared to its global funds assets of $6.3 billion, Dundee believes that its Indian business is a long term project that may not yield early profits. Dundee has so far invested over $6 million (Rs 27 crore) in its Indian venture of which 50 per cent has been used as seed capital in its own mutual funds.

Dundee India is currently incurring cash losses of about $200,000 (about Rs 91 lakh) per quarter. It does not expect to break even until the assets under management reach a level of $200 million (over Rs 900 crore).

In an obvious indication towards its Indian operations, Goodman has stated," We have yet to gain the synergies and margin opportunities in leveraging the fixed costs of our newly created distribution system over a wider base."

Dundee currently distributes its products in India through 900 distributors and expects to have access to over 2000 distributors of financial products by March 2001.

Dundee India's chairman Dhanesh Varma told The Financial Express that Dundee has also lined up new business ventures in the financial services sector. "We want to provide all the financial services products possible to our clients under one roof," Varma said. He added that the group has been consolidating its operations in the mutual funds business over the last two-three years to establish its credentials and brand name and is now all set to move into other business areas.

Dundee has already acquired the membership of the Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) through its subsidiary Dundee Securities and is also in the process of acquiring membership of the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The group is also venturing into areas like hire-purchase/leasing and housing finance for which the company has created two subsidiaries. A real-estate venture is also on the cards through another subsidiary, Dundee Realty, which will focus on property management and financing.