Religare Decided to Buy 55 percent Stake in Landmark

Indian emerging-markets financial services group, Religare Enterprises Ltd on 2 December 2010 declared that its unit Religare Global Asset Management (RGAM) agreed to buy 55% stake in Landmark Partners for up to $171.5 million. The acquisition will enable Landmark to expand its secondary investment activity into countries where Religare's broader financial services platform has a global presence.

Landmark that was established in 1989 is a private equity and real estate fund-of-funds asset manager that focuses on secondary transactions. It entered the real estate secondary market in 1996. Landmark also introduced investment programs with specialized fund-of-funds, co-investment, and direct investment strategies in the last one decade.

Asset management companies in emerging markets, including India, are usually valued at 4-6% of their assets because of their growth potential. In early 2010, Religare bought US-based fund-of-funds manager Northgare Capital. Other significant acquisitions in this sector include- L&T Finance’s, acquisition of DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management for 45 crore; Japan’s Nomura’s acquisition of stakes in  LIC Mutual Fund for about 2.5% of fund’s assets and IDFC’s  acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank’s asset management business for close to 5.7% of its assets.