Ask, Raymond James part ways

Koticha brothers to hold 100% in the parent company.

The Asit and Sameer Koticha-owned ASK Investment & Financial Consultants today announced that it has bought out 50 per cent strategic stake from Raymond James Financial Inc for an undisclosed amount.

With this, their partnership has come to an end. After this deal, Raymond James will not have any presence in India. The Kotichas have kept their options open on having financial partner or strategic investor in the future.

"Raymond James hasn't been actively managing the business in India and so there were no synergies between us. So we decided to buy their stake as we perceived that there wasn't any growth prospects for us."said Asit Koticha, Managing Director, ASK Raymond James, at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.

"We didn't want to actively participate in our Indian business and so we are withdrawing from India and have no plans to enter the market in the near future," said Thomas Hamilton, Director, ASK Raymond James Securities.

Subsequent to the buyback, the 50 per cent shares will remain with the two brothers-Asit and Sameer. In the new holding pattern, the two brothers will hold 100 per cent share. The ASK group said they were open to strategic alliance.

"Our options are open for tying up with different partners for different businesses in the future so that we can get access to global distribution of our product," added Asit.

The group has segregated its businesses into different subsidiaries. Bharat Shah will be heading the ASK Investment Managers Private Ltd. It has also appointed Mukarram Bhagat as the CEO of ASK Securities India Private Ltd. The group also plans to foray into the financial planning business, to be headed by Rajesh Saluja.

The ASK group also plans to enter mutual fund, real estate and NBFC. Raymond James joins

Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in separating from their Indian partners. Goldman ended a decade-old alliance with billionaire Uday Kotak in March last year and said on September 19 it plans to bring $1 billion in investment capital to India over two years.