ICRA Management Consulting Services (IMaCS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the rating agency, today signed a joint venture agreement with Exsab International Holding, a Jeddah-based investment firm, to set up a joint venture company in Saudi Arabia. "The joint venture company will offer advisory services in 21 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region," IMaCS' Managing Director Raghuttama Rao said.
Rao said that the JV would be incorporated in Saudi Arabia with its headquarters at Ritadh.
ICRA will have the majority stake in the JV, ranging between 30-35 per cent, followed by Exsab, which would only have financial interests.
"We are also trying to bring in seven-eight independent people, including Foreign Institutional Investors, who will have the remaining stake in the venture among them," Rao said.
IMaCS has already presence in the MENA region, but the partnership with Exsab would help to rope in more clients from the region, Rao said.
"The JV enables both the parties to pool their expertise and jointly offer consulting services in the MENA region to banks, corporates, government and government-owned organisations," he said.
"Going forward, I see good demand for consulting services in the areas of strategy, risk analytics, corporate finance and development consulting in the region," Rao said.
