Financial services group Edelweiss has agreed to acquire Ambit Investment Advisors' flagship hedge fund, Ambit Alpha Fund, the two companies said on Thursday.
The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the transaction.
This is the second asset management acquisition by Edelweiss Group within six months; it had taken over JP Morgan’s onshore mutual fund schemes in March.
The deal comes barely months after Ambit Alpha Fund crossed the milestone of Rs 1,000 crore (around $150 million) of assets under management (AUM). It now has an AUM of Rs 1,100 crore.
“Ambit Alpha Fund is one of the market-leading Alternate Investment Funds in the country and allows us to consolidate our market position in this business,†Rashesh Shah, chairman and CEO, Edelweiss Group, said in a statement.
Edelweiss said the acquisition will strengthen its Rs 35,000 crore global asset management business that includes mutual funds, alternative assets management, multi-strategy funds and asset reconstruction.
Ambit Alpha Fund is the largest category III Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) in India. It was launched with an AUM of Rs 20 crore in June 2013 raised from Ambit Holdings and a few affluent individuals.
The fund invests in the Indian market using a long-short investment strategy. The long-short investment strategy means taking long positions in stocks that are expected to increase in value and short positions in stocks that are expected to decrease in value.
The latest transaction is subject to due diligence and requisite regulatory approvals.
Ambit Investment Advisors is a joint venture between Ambit Corporate Finance Pvt. Ltd and Japan’s Nikko Asset Management Co. Ltd, one of Asia's leading asset managers with about $160 billion in AUM.
Ambit Investment also advises Mauritius-based Ambit Frontier Fund, an India-dedicated offshore long-short equity hedge fund.
Like this report? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our top reports.
