Commodity Online
MUMBAI: Investment banks in the United States may be collapsing like ninepins. But Indian companies are going ahead with forming new investment banks. On Tuesday, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Reliance Money announced its foray into the investment banking sector.

Reliance Money said it has obtained a merchant banking licence from market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India.

The new licence from SEBI to focus on small and mid-sized companies would allow Reliance Money to provide a wide range of investment banking services such as issue management, underwriting, private equity advisory/ syndication and corporate finance servi ces in India, the company said.

“We are extremely pleased with this development, as we believe the potential for Investment Banking in India is huge. While the main focus of the industry has been on large caps, we see a huge opportunity in serving the small and mid-sized segment, curre ntly being under-serviced,'' Reliance Money Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

The company is eyeing 50 fund raising deals within first the six months and would leverage from its existing customer base of more than 2.5 million and wide distribution network of more than 10,000 outlets, it said.

Reliance Money would initially concentrate on issue management activities such as initial public offerings, rights issue, follow-on public offerings, qualified institutional placements, open offers, buyback offers, delisting offers and preferential issue of listed equity. “Our expansion into investment banking highlights Reliance Money's broad-based approach in building an integrated, comprehensive global financial services platform in the country,'' Bandyopadhyay added.