Amarchand Arm To Hold 25% In Anz Non-Bank Venture

Amarchand Consultancy Pvt Ltd will hold 25 per cent stake in the Australia and New Zealand Banking group's (ANZ) proposed non-banking finance company (NBFC), ANZ Capital Pvt Ltd.

The equity capital of the new company, which recently received approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), will be $5 million.

Amarchand Consultancy is an affiliate of Mumbai-based legal firm Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff and Company.

ANZ will hold 75 per cent in the arm which would offer investment banking services to Indian and multinational clients. Had ANZ wanted to set up fully owned subsidiary, it would have needed to bring in $50 million worth of capital.

Abhay Rangnekar, head of project finance and corporate advisory in India of ANZ Investment Bank, will be the managing director of the NBFC. "The new business will help us to continue to build ANZ Investment Bank's specialised business in the country and offer our clients innovative financial solutions," Rangnekar said.

He said the NBFC would carry out activities such as project finance for the infrastructure sector, provide corporate advisory services, help Indian corporates raise loans through external commercial borrowings and advice in mergers and acquisitions, among others.

ANZ Investment Bank has executed a number of large deals including the privatisation of Modern Foods by way of a strategic sale to Hindustan Lever; asset-backed financing for Jet Airways and is an advisor to the government for the privatisation of Indian Airlines.

More recently, the bank completed the second stage of the largest-ever cross border financing of $750 million in term loans for Reliance Petroleum. It was the coordinating arranger for this facility.

At the time of the merger between ANZ Grindlays and Standard Chartered Bank last July, the two banks signed a renewable co-operation agreement. As Standard Chartered Bank does not have an investment banking arm and ANZ no longer has a banking outfit, this worked out to be a win-win situation for both the parties concerned.

Structured project finance deals undertaken by ANZ are financed by Standard Chartered Bank. Similarly, any merger and acquisition deals that Standard Chartered Bank comes across, are automatically passed onto ANZ's investment banking arm.