Nippon Life Insurance Co. reached an agreement with Mumbai-based Reliance Capital Ltd. to boost its stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management to 49% from 35%, a Tokyo-based spokesman said.
Subject to regulatory approvals, Nippon Life will pay ¥22 billion ($183 million) for the additional 14-percentage-point stake in the firm, which will be renamed Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd., a news release said.
Reliance Capital Asset Management's roughly 1.4 trillion rupees ($21.4 billion) in mutual fund assets as of June 30 gave the firm an 11.8% share of India's mutual fund market, said Sharad Goel, chief spokesman for Reliance Capital. The firm manages another 1 trillion rupees for institutional clients such as pension funds and provident funds, he said.
The Nippon Life spokesman said with the added stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management, the firm's board of directors will be expanded to six from five, with Nippon Life adding its third board member.
The news release noted the collaboration between Nippon Life and Reliance Capital has extended to supplying investment products to each other's retail investors, with the net asset value of those publicly offered investment trusts coming to ¥80 billion as of Sept. 30.
