Plans to apply for these in Singapore and Hong Kong, too.
Religare Enterprises, the financial services company promoted by former Ranbaxy promoter Malvinder Mohan Singh, has filed for an institutional broking and investment banking licence in New York and Dubai, as it seeks to expand its global footprint.
It is doing the paperwork for similar filings in Singapore and Hong Kong. Martin Newson, CEO, Religare Capital Markets, said: “A strong institutional business is extremely important for equity capital markets. We believe this global distribution will be helpful for Indian corporates.”
It has hired Nikhil Bahel from Goldman Sachs as managing director of Religare Hichens Harrison, the investment banking business of Religare Enterprises Ltd.
Religare’s plan to expand in key financial markets follows its 2008 acquisition of Hichens Harrisons Plc, a UK-based stock broking firm. It recently acquired US-based investment company Northgate Capital in a $200-million deal. The group has earmarked $1 billion (Rs 4,600 crore) for buying asset management businesses globally. It was looking at more such buys in the US, said people familiar with the development.
The New Delhi-based company has done a couple of acquisitions in the past few years to get a foothold in the highly competitive financial services business. It entered into asset management by acquiring Lotus Mutual Fund. Last year, it bought 87.5 per cent in Maharishi Housing Development Finance Corporation, a New Delhi-based company, for Rs 93 crore.
Apart from that, it is present in life insurance in partnership with Dutch major Aegon. It also plans to foray into health insurance in the coming months. Religare had signed a non-binding agreement with Swiss Re to set up a health insurance joint venture. But, the venture was called off.
It also has a private equity fund in partnership with Milestone, besides a joint venture with Macquarie for the wealth management business.
Quite a few brokers have gone global in the recent past. These include Centrum Capital, which got regulatory approval in 2008 to operate as a broker/dealer on the New York Stock Exchange.
The group has set up an office in London for its European activities. New Delhi-based Jaypee Capital also has offices in Chicago and New York. Among others, broking companies such as Geojit and Reliance Money have been present in West Asia for some years to tap the savings of wealthy Indians there.
