VCCircle

Boutique investment banks does not want to remain boutique anymore. If the trend is anything is to go by, they also want to emulate the biggies like JM Financial and Edelweiss Capital and want to offer a bouquet of financial services rather than just stick to investment banking and advisory services. It makes sense in the current context as financial services firms like Edelweiss Capital and Religare Enterprises have commanded huge valuations in the recent stock market listings.
Mumbai based Avendus Advisors has rechristened itself as Avendus Capital. It's part of the "boutique" firm's plans to enter institutional broking and capital market practices (such as managing IPOs, open offer transactions). A Business Standard report says that Avendus plans to enter the asset management and non-banking financial company (NBFC) businesses too.
The firm is said to be in the process of setting up a sales and research team for the institutional broking division, BS reports, quoting Ranu Vohra, managing director and CEO of Avendus Capital. The firm had recently hired Girish Nadkarni from IL&FS Investmart to head capital market practices.
Chennai-based Spark Capital is another boutique investment banking firm that has launched institutional broking business. Similarly, o3 Capital Advisors, the boutique firm that was formed recently by a few ex-Avendus employees, has also ventured into institutional broking and research. It's likely all these firms will start providing a whole host of investment banking and capital market services.