Religare to buy Macquarie stake in wealth management JV

Religare Enterprises, a financial services company, today said it will acquire Australia-based Macquarie's stake in wealth management joint venture - Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Ltd.

The equal partnership joint venture was formed in 2007 to serve High Net Worth individuals (HNI) client base in the country. In a statement, Religare Enterprises announced its " decision to acquire Macquarie's stake in its wealth management joint venture - Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Ltd."

Also read: Need concrete govt policies; Q2 GDP to be worse saysVetri Subramaniam
   
After completion of the transaction and necessary formalities, the new entity would be rechristened as Religare Wealth Management Ltd and would form a part of the broader capital markets business of Religare group.
   
There would be no change in the management team and the team would report to Basab Mitra, CEO -Capital Markets and Wealth Management for Religare group.
   
Commenting on the development, Religare Enterprises Group CEO Shachindra Nath said: "The partnership with Macquarie has been fruitful. Macquarie has decided to exit the wealth management business from Asia including India and this has created for us the opportunity to further consolidate our financial services platform in India."
  
"We see this new structure as a great growth enabler for the business by bringing together the broader Religare ecosystem including distribution, pan- India client base and research capabilities under a common unified umbrella," he added.

As of March 31, 2013, the joint venture has close to Rs 2,800 crore assets under management serving over 4,800 clients.