Mukesh Ambani, BlackRock to launch new Indian venture

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Reliance Industries’ financial services unit and BlackRock have joined forces to set up an Indian asset management venture as the conglomerate owned by Asia’s richest man seeks to propel the arm to become one of the biggest non-banking finance companies in the country.

Jio BlackRock

Jio Financial Services and BlackRock signed an agreement to form Jio BlackRock, an equal joint venture, on Wednesday with a targeted initial investment of $150m each in the entity, the companies said in a statement.

“The partnership will leverage BlackRock’s deep expertise in investment and risk management along with the technology capability and deep market expertise of JFS to drive digital delivery of products,” said Hitesh Sethia, president at Jio Financial Services.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is seeking to make Jio Financial Services one of the nation’s top non-banking finance companies by leveraging his telecom and retail businesses, taking Reliance one step closer to creating the type of multi-purpose empire that’s similar to Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.

For Blackrock, this represents a return to fund management in India after exiting in 2018.

“India represents an enormously important opportunity,” Rachel Lord, chair & head of APAC at BlackRock, said in the statement. “The convergence of rising affluence, favorable demographics, and digital transformation across industries is reshaping the market in incredible ways.”

Jio Financial Services was valued at about $20bn after a special session conducted by exchanges to discover its trading value on July 20.

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