Edelweiss to acquire Religare's securities business

Edelweiss Wealth Management on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Religare's securities business, which includes securities and commodities broking, and depository participant services.

"The favorable macro-economic environment, supported by the growing financialization of savings and rising affluence, has favorably impacted our wealth management business that has seen over 70 percent growth over the last fiscal," Nitin Jain, CEO, Global Wealth & Asset Management, Edelweiss Group said highlighting that the complementary nature of Religare's business to Edelweiss's wealth management platform made for an attractive choice.

Edelweiss is looking at synergising growth opportunities and expansion, especially for its asset and wealth management businesses and the company in the past has acquired and successfully integrated Rooshnil Securities (2001) and Anagram Capital Ltd. (2010), Edelweiss said in a release.

Rahul Jain, Head of Personal Wealth Advisory, Edelweiss Global Wealth Management also added that the acquisition of Religare's business helps Edelweiss to instantly expand its geographical reach and distribution footprint, while almost trebling our client base.

Edelweiss will also take on the pan-India distribution of around 1,250 points of presence including over 90 branches, over one million clients and the employees of the business.

"We have had interest from many potential suitors for this business and chose Edelweiss because in addition to having the product palette most suitable for our existing clients and partners, they were keen on retaining Religare's workforce in its entirety, and this was one of our biggest priorities," S.Lakshminarayanan, Executive Chairman, Religare Enterprises Ltd., said.