Nikko Asset Management and Ambit plan asset management JV in India

Mumbai: Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Nikko AM) and Ambit RSM Private Limited (Ambit) today announced that they have reached an agreement to set up an asset management joint venture between. This is the Japanese asset management company's first initiative to build an asset management joint venture in India.

Nikko AM will have a 74.9-per cent of the ordinary stock of the joint venture company with Ambit retaining the remaining.

The Nikko AM group has been active in the offshore Indian asset management market for over a decade and was an early adopter of the Foreign Institutional Investor ("FII") designation in India via the group's regional base in Singapore. Since 2004, Nikko AM has invested in additional offshore infrastructure, most notably by establishing a regulated group company in Mauritius and a dedicated India fund management team in Singapore, that has enabled the group to expand its Indian investment management capacity rapidly, in particular by facilitating the successful launch of Nikko BRICs Equity Fund in March 2006.

Ambit is a financial services group in India with interests in investment banking, private equity, stock broking and consulting and is headed by managing director Ashok Wadhwa, a former managing partner of Arthur Andersen in India.