Dubai-based Signature Group, a finance and investment company with more than $1 billion of assets under management, has identified India’s infrastructure sector as an attractive and safe investment haven.

“The Indian economy is sweeping aside the global economic downturn and is predicted to grow by as much as 8.75 per cent in the new fiscal year,” said Pankaj Agrawal, founder and chairman of Signature Group.

Agrawal was speaking at a ceremony to mark the company's new corporate re-branding designed to position the company as one of the regions’ leading specialist alternative asset management companies.

“From humble beginnings in 2005 we crossed the $1 billion mark for assets under management by the end of last year,” Agrawal remarked.

“We now move into a further expansionary phase with a new corporate image that goes hand-in-hand with our continued development of comprehensive range of infrastructure investments including Shariah-compliant structures covering India, the GCC, Africa and other emerging markets,” he stated.

Signature’s landmark transactions include India’s first Integrated Logistics Park in Navi, Mumbai; an Entertainment focused city, also in Mumbai, with film and multi-media studios, theatres, convention halls, commercial and retail elements and an integrated township development in NCR, Delhi.

'Our success is based on discernible investment partners, proprietary transactions and a dependable team of investment professionals,” Agrawal noted.

“We also design and implement exit strategies that offer investors superior returns with minimal risk. As a result, we believe Signature’s future is one of sustained growth leading to greater achievements for our clients as well as ourselves,” he added.

In addition to managing assets and acting as strategic advisors for major investments in infrastructure and the media sector, transactions in energy, healthcare, education, food and agriculture are also under process.

Umesh Chandra, CEO of the Signature Group said India is firmly ranked among the world’s fastest growing nations and for financial institutions in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, and increasingly Europe and North America, the country is very much on the investment radar.

“While Signature continues to act as a gateway to investments opportunities in India and as a strategic partner to the GCC we are also looking to make inroads into Africa and other emerging markets,” he noted.

Signature’s particular focus on infrastructure-related investment in India is a sector which has doubled from 4 to 8 per cent of gross domestic product over the past five years, according to government figures.

The country is said to be on course to achieve a $500 billion infrastructure investment five-year target by 2012, Chandra pointed out.

“Signature has deep knowledge in India with offices in Delhi and Mumbai giving us a firm understanding of the market conditions that enables us to identify attractive opportunities to generate high quality investments,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service