Sujan also disclosed that the company is close to launching an India-specific venture capital fund. "We have natural advantages in this area and plan on deploying them in the venture funding business," says Sujan. He did not however disclose the size of the fund.

As far as Rabo's investment banking activities go, Sujan says: "We are close to wrapping up a deal which involves placing about 25 per cent equity in IndiaServer.com (a US-based India-specific portal) with a leading ISP." Rabo is currently "exploring business opportunities for Wipro in the Benelux Belgium ,Holland, Luxembourg) region" according to Sujan. Sujan does not rule out the possibility of business alliances for Wipro in the Benelux region in the foreseeable future.

Sujan sees a definite role for Rabo's investment banking activities once "Indian companies listed in the US exchanges acquire the requisite currency to make acquisitions abroad. They will definitely start looking at the European market since Europe offers the highest margins and we have a strong presence there already," says Sujan.

Rabo is also close to wrapping up a deal for BPL Innovision, BPL's Internet subsidiary where a couple of private equity funds are in the process of picking up equity stakes.

"We have identified the media, Internet and technology spaces as a focus area for India and our team will focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity venture capital funding and cross border strategic advisory projects," says Sujan.

In the Internet space, Rabo's recent projects include the VNU-ORG Marg tie up where they were the strategic advisors, and Infospace.com's acquisition of Zephyr.com in the US. Infocom is targetted at the NRI populace and Zephyr is primarily a news portal targetting the same audience.

"We also plan to focus on lead managing IPOs for Indian companies in the Amsterdam Stock Exchange through the Amsterdam-based Rabo Securities," says Sujan. "We feel that Indian companies planning overseas listings will now start exploring avenues other than the the US and basically look at alternatives to the Nasdaq, given the way the capital markets are currently behaving," he adds.

Sujan feels that Indian companies will increasingly attempt dual listings especially once they realize that European investors generally take a more long term view on investments.