Portugal’s Espírito Santo Investment Bank has entered into a joint venture with the Burman family, the promoter family behind FMCG player Dabur. The JV, which will incorporate a team in India, will focus on institutional equity research and also expand into businesses like brokerage and investment banking. The joint venture will operate under the name Espírito Santo Securities and act as a subsidiary of Espírito Santo Investment Bank (ESIB).
Nick Paulson Ellis, who founded Clear Capital in 2003 (later acquired by Noble), will be the CEO of Espírito Santo Securities. ESIB is a subsidiary of Banco Espírito Santo Group, which has expertise in selected emerging economies including Brazil, India, Poland and increasingly Africa. Last year, Banco Espírito Santo acquired a controlling stake in Execution Noble, a British stockbroker which helped it expand into emerging markets like India.
“The joint venture will incorporate the team in India (currently held indirectly by ESIB), who produce objective institutional equity research well-received by some of the leading asset management institutions investing in India. With the Burman family, a broader, stronger business can be developed, initially extending the brokerage capability and then extending the investment banking proposition for clients over time,” a statement said.
“Espírito Banco Securities has already carved a niche in India, led by a fantastic research product. We will look forward to working with the team to offer a broader scope of financial services and also look to use the global reach of the Espírito Santo organisation to offer India-related products globally,” said Gaurav Burman.
The Burman family holds 68.7 per cent stake in Dabur India, the country’s fourth largest consumer goods company with a market capitalisation of approximately $4 billion.
Their investments in financial services sector include a life insurance joint venture with Aviva (UK) and stake in the Universal Sompo General Insurance. The Burman family has also promoted and is involved with several private equity firms like Elephant Capital, Asian Healthcare Fund and GTI Capital Group.
