Indian conglomerate Bharti
Enterprises’ desire to exit the country’s financial services
industry has been partly realised with the announcement that
state-controlled Bank of India (BoI) is to buy its 25% stake in
Bharti Axa Investment Managers (BAIM).
In addition, BoI will acquire
a further 26% stake in BAIM from Axa Investment Managers Asia which
currently controls BAIM through a 75% stake.
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Established in 2007, BAIM has
made slow progress in India. According to Axa, BAIM currently has
assets under management of €25m ($32m) spread across equity, bond
and money market mutual funds and serves 30,000
investors.
Given BoI’s national reach
through over 3,700 branches the bank’s entry as BAIMs controlling
shareholder should make a significant difference.
For Bharti its exit from the
joint venture comes by way of a consolation prize. In November
2011, Bharti announced that a deal that would have seen it sell its
74% stakes in Bharti Axa Life and Bharti Axa General to Indian
conglomerate Reliance Industries had been called off.
Bharti had earlier stated
that the sales of its stakes in the two insurers formed part of its
strategy of focusing on areas “where it is making a deeper
impact”.
Bharti’s other interests
include India’s biggest mobile phone service provider.
