DSP Group To Buy 40% Stake In BlackRock through JV

Financial services firm DSP Group has confirmed its plans to buy out 40% BlackRock Inc’s stake in joint venture DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd to become the sole owner of the asset management firm. The transaction value was not disclosed. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager.

After the stake acquisition, DSP BlackRock will be called DSP Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd while DSP  BlackRock Mutual Fund will become DSP Mutual Fund, subject to regulatory approvals, DSP Group said on Monday.

The DSP Group and BlackRock had entered into the joint venture in 2008. Then, as now, DSP owned 60% stake and BlackRock owned 40% holding in the company.

For the deal, Arpwood Capital Pvt. Ltd is acting as the financial adviser and Talwar, Thakore & Associates is the legal adviser to DSP Group.

Headed by Hemendra Kothari, DSP is one of the oldest financial services firms in India. It established its retail asset management business DSP Merrill Lynch Asset Management (India) Ltd through a joint venture with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 1996. This business went on to become DSP BlackRock Investment Managers in 2008 after BlackRock took over Merrill Lynch’s global asset management business in 2006.

DSP BlackRock managed assets in excess of Rs 1,10,000 crore ($ 16.5 billion) across equity, fixed income and alternatives as on 30 April 2018 with over 2 million individual investors. Separately, BlackRock plans to raise $10 billion as part of a new business that would take direct stakes in companies, Reuters reported in February.

As of 31 March 2018, BlackRock had managed about $6.32 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. Excluding the joint venture, BlackRock employs over 1,400 people in India offices across Gurugram, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.