Starting as a pure-play retail broking operation, Religare has evolved into an integrated financial services group in less than a decade. Religare has a presence across the Indian financial services spectrum – we offer an integrated suite of products and services comprising broking, distribution, lending, asset management, wealth management and insurance. Anchored in India, we are now building an emerging markets financial services business.

Our vision is ''To be the leading emerging markets financial services group driven by innovation, delivering superior value for all stakeholders globally.''

This vision is being fulfilled by our three-pillar strategy that seeks to maximize value from our vast presence in India, and use the learnings from our home market to develop a financial services franchise connecting emerging markets globally.

The Religare name is ubiquitous in the financial services space in India. Our network of 2,209 business locations in 579 towns and cities (as of 31st March, 2011) gives us presence across the length and breadth of the country. The diversity of our offerings – comprising broking, lending, asset management, wealth management and insurance – means that our customers can fulfil most of their financial services needs under a single roof. Religare touches the lives of over a million people, be it providing small investors access to profitable opportunities in the capital markets, linking agriculturists and traders in the mandis of India to global commodity markets, assisting the young and old alike to accumulate savings to achieve their life goals, helping entrepreneurial dreams come to life by funding thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises or providing savings and protection options to deal with the uncertainties of life.

Our businesses are making a mark in the marketplace: our retail equity broking arm was named among the top three retail equity brokerage houses in India by Dun & Bradstreet in its report, “India’s Leading Equity Broking Houses 2010”; our commodities broking arm was named “India’s Best Commodities Broker” by UTV Bloomberg; in a short span of three years, our asset management business, with average assets under management of 115 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, became the 13th largest in India out of 43 fund houses; our lending business closed FY11 with a loan book of 89.67 billion, reflecting 119% growth year-on-year; our life insurance joint venture recorded 83% higher new business premium in FY11 than a year ago.

As the Indian economy continues on its growth path, the demand for financial products and services is set to grow exponentially. The evolution of the market will mean that Indian consumers, like their counterparts in the West, will become savvier and demand newer and more sophisticated financial products. These two factors will combine to form a beneficial spiral for trusted financial services providers; Religare is fully geared to make the most of this opportunity.

The crisis of 2008-09 has irreversibly altered the course of global economic evolution: the developed world came to the brink of financial collapse more than once but emerging markets continued on their growth path. Religare has firmly believed for a long time that emerging markets have the potential to become drivers of the world economy; the crisis has catalyzed this transformation. Over the coming years, we anticipate acceleration in the flow of capital across emerging markets, as companies based in these markets raise resources to finance their businesses or acquire assets overseas, and businesses and investors from the western world acquire interests in emerging market companies to improve their own returns. A Goldman Sachs report of September 2010 estimates that emerging markets’ share of world GDP will move from 37% currently to 59% in 2030 and consequently market capitalization of emerging market equities will grow from US$ 14 trillion in 2010 to US$ 80 trillion in 2030, accounting for 55% of world market capitalization. The estimated fee pool on primary equity issuances and secondary market transactions underlying this staggering increase is US$ 420 billion. This is an unprecedented opportunity for the creation of a capital markets business of a new breed: an emerging marketsbased, emerging markets-focused capital markets platform that will specialise in intermediating on the capital flows into and out of emerging markets. Such a platform will provide its customers a winning proposition based on its global reach and an on-the-ground understanding of how emerging markets function. We believe there is room for one or two firms from each of the four large emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China – to make a mark. We have positioned ourselves to make the most of the opportunity and will certainly be one out of this select group.

A corollary to the fundamental shift in global growth composition is the axiomatic truth that emerging markets assets will provide far superior returns vis-à-vis investments in the developed world in the next two decades. At the same time, the prospect of slowing growth in the west has led to a fall in valuation of western asset managers, often ignoring the fact that some of these firms have very valuable investment skills embedded within them. The same research paper from Goldman Sachs that sizes the emerging markets investment banking and institutional equities opportunity at US$ 420 billion, estimates that developed economies, in pursuit of better returns, would be net buyers of US$ 4 trillion worth emerging markets equities in the next 20 years. Religare, with its commitment to emerging markets, saw another very large opportunity here – one that marries our emerging markets expertise with the investing skills embedded in developed world asset managers – and set out to create a global asset management platform that seeks to unlock value in western asset managers.

Our global asset management platform is built on three fundamental principles: we will acquire niche asset managers in the alternatives space; we will acquire controlling stakes in the acquired affiliates but will ensure that the existing management continues to run the investment process as before, and along with the founders, has a significant minority stake; and we will use our network to provide common distribution infrastructure as also access to investment opportunities in emerging markets. We have laid the foundation of our distribution infrastructure and completed the first phase of acquisitions, and sown the seeds of a disruptive asset management model.

We believe our model is one with no parallel. The Indian financial services sector is experiencing significant growth tailwinds, which bodes extremely well for our established and new businesses in our home market. Our experience of doing business in India positions us better than firms from the developed world to work around the constraints and peculiarities of other emerging markets that are in the midst of similar multi-year growth cycles. Our platform in India is well-established – we enjoy leading positions in various segments within the financial services space – and sufficiently scalable to accommodate our growth aspirations. Our portfolio in India covers virtually the entire gamut of financial services. Our EM Capital Markets business has scaled up rapidly, integrating three bolt-on acquisitions in the process, and is gaining traction in the market. We have established the distribution infrastructure for our Global Asset Management business and acquired two asset managers in the alternatives space who are now part of the platform. Our Board comprises professionals and independent directors who are luminaries in their fields, thus providing a solid governance framework. In an industry where talent is everything, we have attracted some of the best by providing them a robust platform and the opportunity to create a unique business.

Religare, we believe, is truly a unique proxy for the emerging markets opportunity.