ICICI Securities Ltd, the investment banking subsidiary of ICICI Bank, has forged a strategic alliance with GCA Savvian Corporation, a Japanese investment bank to jointly pursue merger and acquisition (M&As) intermediation opportunities in India and Japan.
Anup Bagchi, managing director and CEO, ICICI Securities, said, “The partnership will help us leverage our combined knowledge of local markets and long-standing corporate relationships to provide high quality advice and grow M&A opportunities for our clients.”
It is the third such tie-up for ICICI Securities in the last two years. In September 2011, ICICI Securities had tied up with US-based Oppenheimer to increase its reach in the US region. This came close on the heels of a similar partnership with UK’s Collins Stewart Hawkpoint where the alliance covered advisory services, private equity transactions, debt advisory services and other corporate finance advice. Collins Stewart Hawkpoint was later acquired by Canaccord who is now the partner of ICICI Securities.
With its earlier tie-ups, it has closed in four-five transactions where announcements are awaited and is vetting further transactions.
In 2012, ICICI Securities closed eight transactions in the M&A space and the Indian deal ecosystem saw 20 transactions last year in the Indo-Japanese corridor amounting to $5.6 billion, said Ajay Saraf, executive director, ICICI Securities.
Akihiro Watanabe, representative director, GCA Savvian Corporation, said, “We are very excited to partner with them and their long-standing track record in India and corporations across the country will be well received by our Japanese clients.”
GCA Savvian has been active in India for the last several years being advisor on deals such as Japanese stationary and furniture major Kokuyo’s acquisition of Camlin and Mitsui's stake purchase in Arch Pharmalabs. It had a partnership with local investment bank Kotak Mahindra Capital which was called off last year. Kotak Mahindra Capital later tied up with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Early this month GCA Savvian appointed Sameer Jindal to lead its operations in India. Jindal, who is a managing director at GCA Savvian office in San Francisco, has moved to Mumbai to help the firm expand its operations in India. At present it has a three-member team based in Mumbai in India.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)