HSBC Holdings Plc plans to buy 73.2 percent of IL&FS Investsmart Ltd., an Indian brokerage, for 10.03 billion rupees ($235 million) to tap rising incomes in the world’s fastest growing major economy after China.
Europe’s largest bank by market value will acquire 43.85 percent from a Mauritius-based unit of E*Trade Financial Corp. and the rest from the Indian brokerage’s founder, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd., for 200 rupees a share, HSBC said in a statement e-mailed from Hong Hong.
Economic growth that has averaged 8.7 percent since 2003 is boosting incomes of individuals and companies in India, fueling investment in shares, bonds and mutual funds. Asia’s third- biggest economy has more than 20 million retail investors and the country’s two main stock exchanges are the world’s third and fifth-largest by transaction volume, said Sandy Flockhart, HSBC’s chief executive officer for Asia Pacific.
`` This investment is of strategic importance to HSBC as it gives us a foothold in one of the largest retail broking markets in the world,’’ Flockhart said in the statement.
HSBC will also make an offer to buy an additional 20 percent from other shareholders.
The National Stock Exchange has terminals spread across 1,486 locations in India. The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, has climbed sixfold in the five years through 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Source : Bloomberg
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