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DSP Group To Buy Out BlackRock’s 40% Stake In India Joint Venture

DSP Group will buy out BlackRock’s minority stake in joint venture DSP BlackRock Investment Managers.

A commuter carries a soft briefcase while walking through the central business district in Sydney, Australia. (Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg)  
A commuter carries a soft briefcase while walking through the central business district in Sydney, Australia. (Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg)  

The DSP Group will buy out BlackRock’s minority stake in joint venture DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd.

The resultant entity, after BlackRock’s exit, will be known as DSP Investment Managers while DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund is proposed to become DSP Mutual Fund, the asset manager said in a press release. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

As India’s asset management industry grows, the DSP Group is well poised to capture a significant portion of that growth, Hemendra Kothari, Chairman, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers said in the statement. “Pursuing the investor’s best interests” will remain the core of mission, as the company enters the next phase as DSP Mutual Fund, he added.

BlackRock currently has a 40 percent stake in the joint venture, which manages co-branded mutual funds in India. DSP BlackRock manages and advises assets in excess of Rs 1,10,000 crore ($ 16.5 billion) across equity, fixed income and alternatives (as on 30th April 2018) with over 2 million individual investors.

“BlackRock remains deeply committed to India, and we look forward to having a continued positive impact on the asset management industry in the country,” Laurence Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said in a separate statement

The DSP Group’s joint venture arrangement with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 1996 established its retail asset management business in India, DSP Merrill Lynch Asset Management (India) Ltd. This business went on to become DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd. in 2008, after BlackRock Inc. took over Merrill Lynch’s global asset management business in 2006.