BlackRock, whose $9.1 trillion in assets makes it the largest manager globally, has partnered with one of India’s biggest companies in an attempt to open a door to investors in the world’s most populous country.
The asset management firm announced a partnership on Wednesday with Jio Financial Services, a company that was valued at more than $20 billion last week after it was spun out from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. The two firms have filed in India to form Jio BlackRock, a “joint venture that combines the respective strengths and trusted brands of BlackRock and JFS to deliver tech-enabled access to affordable, innovative investment solutions for millions of investors in India.”
Each company plans to contribute $150 million to the joint venture, which will have its own management team. A statement did not specifically detail any products or services that the partnership might offer.
Out of BlackRock’s $9.1 trillion in assets, $3.5 trillion belongs to investors outside the U.S., but most of those clients are based in Europe. Asian investors outside of Japan only have $245 billion in assets with BlackRock, according to the asset manager’s investor-day presentation.
Incorporating Jio into the name of the joint venture will instantly give it some familiarity to many Indians. In 2015, Reliance launched Jio, a telecommunications firm that grew to become the largest mobile network provider in India, with more than 450 million subscribers. The company has expanded its business over the years, and it now provides fiber-optic internet to homes and businesses and has also developed a wide variety of apps for shopping, healthcare, streaming, and cloud storage.
“India represents an enormously important opportunity. The convergence of rising affluence, favorable demographics, and digital transformation across industries is reshaping the market in incredible ways,” said Rachel Lord, chair and head of APAC at BlackRock, in a statement.
Hitesh Sethia, president and CEO at JFS, said that his company is excited to work with BlackRock and looks forward to leveraging the asset manager’s expertise in investment and risk management alongside his company’s technology and knowledge of local markets.
“Jio BlackRock will be a truly transformational, customer-centric, and digital-first enterprise, with the vision to democratize access to financial investment solutions and deliver financial well-being to the doorstep of every Indian,” Sethia said.
For BlackRock, the partnership is somewhat of a reentry into India’s asset management industry. The firm had previously entered into a joint venture with the local financial firm DSP Group but exited that in 2018.
According to BlackRock, the firm has been growing its presence in India for 17 years. Out of the firm’s roughly 19,500 employees, 2,400 work out of offices in Mumbai, Gurgaon, and Bangalore and are focused on investments, alternatives, operations, analytics and modeling, and corporate functions.
