Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL), the demerged financial lending arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, have joined hands to set up an asset management company.
- It’s a 50:50 JV with both partners planning to invest $150 million each in the JV
- Jio BlackRock will bring BlackRock’s deep expertise and talent in investment management, risk management, product excellence, and access to technology, operations, scale and intellectual capital around markets, while Jio Financial contributes local market knowledge, digital infrastructure capabilities, and group’s existing retail customer network.
- Partnership aims to transform India’s asset management industry through a digital-first offering and democratise access to investment solutions for investors in India.
- Jio BlackRock will launch operations after the receipt of regulatory and statutory approvals.
On papers it seems a disruptive partnership with strong synergies. However, this is not an easy sector and entailed with varied challenges. It would be interesting to watch how this unfolds.
(This is BlackRock’s second outing in the Indian MF industry. It quit a venture with DSP, called DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, in 2018 on the ground that, being a minority stakeholder with 40% equity, it was not able to integrate the business onto its operating platform.)