Joint venture to offer portfolio consulting to subcontinent's HNW investors. Australia's Macquarie Bank has taken a 50% share in New Delhi, India-based Religare Enterprises' wealth-management division.

The partnership, to be renamed Religare Macquarie Wealth, will provide wealth-management products and services to a growing base of high-net-worth Indian investors.

Six figures

In fact India had the second-fastest growing population of U.S.-dollar millionaires in Asia last year (Singapore came first). The subcontinent's high-net-worth population, up more than 20% in 2006 to around 100,000, held a combined $350 billion in financial assets, according to a recent regional wealth-market report by Merrill Lynchand Capgemini.

"The [joint venture] will include access to individual managed-fund products, structured products and equity investments as part of an actively managed model portfolio of investment assets," says Religare's CEO Sunil Godhwani.

Religare Macquarie Wealth aims to be a top-three wealth-management firm in India, adds Godhwani.

Sydney-based Macquarie is one of Australia's biggest financial-service companies. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.