Celent study probes India's burgeoning wealth mkt

FWR Staff

8 January 2008

Subcontinent's private-client providers could be vying for $1 trillion AUM. India's wealth-management industry is coalescing rapidly and represents a huge growth opportunity as providers, products, channels, technology, regulation, and clients coming together at breakneck speed, according to a new report by Celent, a Boston-based market-research firm.

By 2012, says Celent, India's wealth-management providers could be working in a market worth $1-trillion in investable assets across 42 million households.

"This phenomenal market opportunity is resulting in interesting dynamics at the provider end, where there is consolidation by segment," says Ravi Nawal, a Celent analyst and author of the report Overview of the Indian Wealth Management Market. "There is increasing momentum towards structure in this previously chaotic domain."

The 36-page report examines India's wealth-management industry across various client segments, looks at the structural changes and technological frameworks driving the growth, and points to coming trends.

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Celent also identifies six broad categories of potential wealth-management clients in India. By 2012, it sees 10,500 ultra-high-net-worth households with assets of at least $30 million apiece, 42,000 "super-high-net-worth" families (assets between $10 million and $30 million), 320,000 high-net-worth households (assets between $1 million and $10 million), and 350,000 "super-affluent" households (assets between $125,000 and $1 million), 1.8 million households (assets between $25,000 and $125,000, and 39 million mass-market households, with assets between $5,000 and $25,000).

Fluctuating exchange rates and local economic factors aside, 195,300 Indian rupees -- the approximate rate of exchange on $5,000 -- seems to represent the equivalent purchasing power of around $45,000 in the U.S. -FWR

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