Aditya Birla To Merge Financial Services Units

Vanessa Doctor

15 December 2009

Aditya Birla Group, the India-based multinational conglomerate, has announced plans to merge all the financial services under its Aditya Birla Nuvo subsidiary into one holding firm.

At present, there are five companies operating under Nuvo: Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Private Limited, Birla Global Finance Company Limited, Birla Insurance Advisory and Broking Services Limited, Birla Sun Life Distribution Company Limited and Aditya Birla Money Limited.

According to Aditya Birla Financial Services CEO Ajay Srinivasan in a statement, these businesses' consistently good performance will likely give the merged entity a value of more than Rs 15,000 crore ($3.2 trillion).

“We are already on the job and a new holding company for the financial services will be in place in couple of months," Mr Srinivasan said.

Aditya Birla Nuvo currently has a market capitalisation of about Rs 8,000 crore ($1.7 trillion), which could be easily doubled once the new company is set in place. The company said that the best way to unlock the maximum value of the said units would be through the dilution of the holding firm's stake, and not via a public offering.

The move is still subject to approval from the different regulators where the businesses in question are listed.