Goldman Sachs invests Rs 370 cr in NBFC arm

The Goldman Sachs Group today announced a capital infusion of Rs 370 crore in its wholly-owned, non-banking financial company (NBFC), Pratham Investments and Trading. Subsequently, the company’s total capital base would go up to Rs 485 crore.

The firm plans to use the capital to expand its credit trading and investing businesses. “This capital infusion furthers our objective of building a full service investment banking and securities platform in India,” said Jesse Lentchner, managing director and head of securities at Goldman Sachs in India.

The NBFC subsidiary was established in Mumbai in December 2006 and serves leading corporate and institutional clients through corporate finance (investment banking), equity sales and trading and fixed income securities businesses, as well as economic and investment research and offshore asset management.

 

The group is also active in private equity and principal investing in India. Before receiving approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on October 2007 for setting up an asset management company in India and NBFC for portfolio management services, Goldman Sachs was present in the country through a joint venture with Kotak Mahindra.

The initial investment for the AMC was around $50 million. It intended to make investments of $1 billion in private equity, real estate, private wealth management and other businesses in India over the next few years.

The company, which has a licence for merchant banking and brokerage services, is also registered as a foreign institutional investor with Sebi.