Astrid lobo didn't know how to react when Vijay C. Advani, President of Templeton Asset Management (India) Ltd, offered her a job on a paper napkin in South Mumbai's plush Oberoi Hotel way back in 1995. At that time Advani, who had just chucked up a cushy job at the World Bank, Washington, where he worked for 11 years, was without an office, and without any people. Leaving his family (which included three young daughters) back in the US, Advani operated temporarily out of a Mumbai hotel, as he went about the challenging mandate of developing and executing Templeton's India strategy from scratch. Lobo, who was working with multinational pharmaceutical major Glaxo, hesitatingly, and after much convincing, agreed to be Advani's first-and Templeton India's second-recruit. "I remember the time when I used to single-handedly work as the operator, customer service executive and office boy," reminisces Advani over phone from the Franklin Templeton headquarters in San Mateo, California. In six months, Templeton was up and running in India, with a maiden scheme that mobilised Rs 50 crore.

Around the same time in the mid-nineties, another Indian landed home, lock, stock and family, after spending nearly a decade in New York at Bankers Trust (a consortium of banks that had invested in a trust company, which was eventually taken over by Deutsche Bank in 1998). His name: Ajai Kaul. His new role: CEO and Country Manager, Alliance Capital Asset Management (India) Ltd, which had just set up shop in the country. "There was plenty of excitement about India those days as the liberalisation process was beginning to gather steam," recollects Kaul, speaking to BT from Singapore. That period is clearly unforgettable, not just for Kaul but perhaps his wife too-on their wedding anniversary, he did succeed in taking her out for dinner; but it ended pretty fast as Kaul had to spend the night at a printing press, poring over details of an Alliance '95 scheme and proof-reading the application form. His family was stationed in a south Mumbai hotel for nearly eight months, although Kaul would have ended up spending more time at his office in a business centre. But there are few regrets. "The India assignment was something I had never done before, and the entire exposure was on a much larger scale," says Kaul, who also did a chartered financial analyst programme from Virginia while working for Bankers Trust. Within 90 days in India, Kaul launched Alliance's first scheme, which garnered Rs 70 crore.

Keenly tracking the progress of Advani and Kaul in the fledgling mutual fund space from Ground Zero was St Stephen's and IIM-A graduate Ajay Srinivasan. After honing his skills at ITC's treasury and development financial institution ICICI Ltd, Srinivasan went on to head Prudential ICICI Asset Management in 1998, a joint venture between Prudential Plc of the UK and ICICI. In just two years, Srinivasan found himself propelled into another league, elevated as head of Prudential's Asian business.

Vijay C. Advani, 46 Executive Vice President, Global Advisor Services, & Executive Managing Director, Franklin Templeton Investments, US countries in charge of: Worldwide responsibilities ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: $360 billion INVESTMENT COVERAGE: Mutual funds and pension plans for both retail and institutional clients BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Elevation from Templeton India head to a top global position INDIA STINT: President, Templeton Asset Management (India) Ltd between 1995 and 1999

It's from here that this tale begins to gather steam-a tale of three money managers who, after nurturing a fledgling Indian mutual fund sector, went on to take charge of global outposts and, in the process, manage billions of dollars of investor money in countries right from Singapore to Japan to the us. Consider: As Executive Managing Director, Franklin Templeton Investments, Advani is responsible for not only the firm's global retail strategy and initiatives, but also alternative asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity funds and fund of funds. Advani is in charge of $360 billion of investible money, which is 4.5 times the size of the entire Indian mutual funds industry. Kaul manages the mutual fund teams of Alliance Bernstein (that's what it's known as now) in Asian markets like Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, and along with them funds that could be in the vicinity of $200 billion (Alliance Bernstein doesn't provide a region-wise break-up of funds under management). And then there's Srinivasan, overseeing Prudential's fast-growing Asian mutual fund portfolio and life insurance funds. He's also responsible for developing Prudential's pension business in Asia. In all, Srinivasan is in charge of nine regions, and a little over $50 billion.

When Srinivasan left for Hong Kong in January 2001, he left behind a mutual fund with assets under management (AUM) of Rs 4,800 crore, making Pru-ICICI the largest private sector fund, and second-largest to the state-owned UTI. Advani wasn't far behind with Templeton, boasting an AUM of Rs 4,000 crore by the time he left India in 1999. Alliance Asset Management had an AUM of Rs 800 crore when Kaul relocated to Singapore.

Ajai M. Kaul, 47 Managing Director, Alliance Bernstein (Singapore) Ltd COUNTRIES IN CHARGE OF: Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: Not disclosed (non-US funds are about $208 billion) INVESTMENT COVERAGE: Asset management for both retail as well as institutional clients BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Set up Alliance's retail business in Asia INDIA STINT: CEO and Country Manager, Alliance Capital Asset Management (India) Ltd, between 1994 and 2000

Clearly, it's no coincidence that the three gentlemen whose career graphs took off along with the Indian mutual funds industry are today in considerable positions of power in mature markets where fund penetration and awareness are high. For, the evolution of the domestic sector provided these fund managers opportunities to innovate, experiment, even learn via failure and, in the bargain, earn their spurs. Mutual funds in the mid-nineties was an alien asset class for most in India-even for Kaul, who looked after fixed-income securities at Bankers Trust. Srinivasan, for his part, used to handle ITC's in-house investment portfolio and project management at ICICI. "Our business model was woven around offering world class service and highly ethical standards. In fact, we went beyond average regulations," says Advani. Templeton AMC started by launching Templeton India Growth Fund, a diversified equity fund. Under Advani's stewardship, Templeton was the first to try out innovative products like a floating rate scheme and principal-protection structured products. "We were the first to promote systematic investment plans (sips)," adds Advani. Kaul, who was also armed with an MBA from New York University, remembers launching the concept of gift-a-mutual-fund-scheme, which bombed. But for every disaster, there are a number of firsts that clicked. "We were the first fund in the country to make quarterly disclosures of entire portfolios to the public at large," points out Kaul. The practice those days was to disclose only the top 10 holdings. Investment strategies were well thought out, keeping in mind the nascent nature of the business. Kaul, for instance, believed in having a small basket of performing funds. That's why Alliance had a dozen schemes when he left India. "The idea was to have a few building blocks and consolidate," says Kaul.

The move overseas was seamless. Srinivasan, a strict vegetarian, made a move to Hong Kong in December 2000 as regional head of Prudential. "The difference was really about culture and regulation. Each market has its own regulatory framework," says Srinivasan. Advani relocated to Singapore around the same time as Regional Managing Director, Product Development, Sales & Marketing for Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. In his three years in Singapore, Advani launched the mutual fund business for Templeton in South Korea and also explored countries like Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Kaul too can take credit for growing Alliance's retail portfolio in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. "Asia was a young business (for us), and growing rapidly," says Kaul.

For Srinivasan, Prudential's adventure out of the UK coincided with his own out of India. India was the first stop for Prudential. Once Srinivasan took charge of the Asian business, the UK fund house bought out operations in Taiwan and Korea, whilst in other countries, Srinivasan himself was instrumental in starting up greenfield ventures. Today, Prudential is a Top 10 mutual fund player in Taiwan, and #4 in Malaysia and Singapore. Srinivasan also launched Japan's first India fund way back in 2003. Srinivasan saw an opportunity when a lot of China funds (totalling $7-8 billion) were in the Japanese market.

Advani spends most of his time in markets like Germany, Italy, the UK-and India, some of Templeton's faster growing markets. "We probably have the most dense global footprint in the world," says Advani. Franklin Templeton has a presence in close to 100 countries, with some 16,000 people working worldwide. The big question, today, is: Will the action in India lure these specialist money managers back to the country? Needless to say, India is always on their radar. "India is a huge consumer story. Not many economies in the Asian region can boast of such a huge market," gushes Srinivasan. "There is huge potential in India. Just look at the money locked in co-operative banks and post offices," adds Advani. The Indian mutual fund industry is still massively under-penetrated (under 5 per cent, as against 16 per cent in Europe). And then there are other financial services sectors like private equity, insurance, and real estate that are only just beginning to explode. "Retirement as a theme has a huge opportunity as the state would not be able to handle the pension bills," says Srinivasan. If any of these gentlemen come to India, you can be sure that a retired life would be the last thing on their minds.