State-run Bank of India said late on Saturday it would buy 51 percent of Indian asset manager Bharti AXA Investment Managers Pvt Ltd from the firm’s two joint venture partners.
Bharti AXA Investment Managers is a tie-up between Bharti Enterprises, which controls leading Indian mobile telecoms firm Bharti Airtel, and France’s AXA, Europe’s second-largest insurer.
The joint venture, also known as Bharti AXA Mutual Fund, had assets under management averaging 1.76 billion rupees ($34.4 million) during the July-September quarter, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India website, putting it among the smallest on the list.
Bharti Enterprises is selling its entire 25 percent stake in the joint venture, while AXA is selling 26 percent and will retain the remaining 49 percent, a spokesman for the joint venture said.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Ernst & Young advised Bank of India.
A separate deal for Bharti Enterprises to sell its 74 percent stakes in two Indian insurance joint ventures with AXA to Reliance Industries fell through late last month.
Reliance, India’s largest listed company, said at the time that it was unable to agree with AXA “on the long-term vision and joint governance of the ventures”.
Bharti’s telecoms unit has been weighed down by its $9 billion acquisition of the African mobile operations of Kuwait’s Zain last year and huge costs of launching its 3G network in India.
(US$1 = 51.2 rupees) (Reporting by Rajesh Kurup; Editing by Tony Munroe)
Topics Mergers & Acquisitions AXA XL
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