US bank holding firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc has invested $76 million (Rs 370crore) in its wholly owned non-banking financial company. Goldman has now increased the capital in Pratham Investments and Trading Private Ltd to $100 million (Rs 485 crore) following the capital infusion. With this investment, the local arm now plans to expand its credit trading and investing businesses.
This follows Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley pumping money into their local arms. Earlier this month Morgan Stanley was said to be investing Rs 100 crore into its Indian retail stock broking and portfolio management services firm Morgan Stanley India Financial Services (MSIFS). Last month Credit Suisse announced that it will pump additional $164 million (Rs 794 crore) into Credit Suisse Finance (India) Pvt Ltd.
"This capital infusion furthers our objective of building a full service investment banking and securities platform in India," said Jesse Lentchner, Managing Director and Head of Securities at Goldman Sachs in India.
Goldman Sachs acquired Pratham in 2008. Goldman had various joint ventures with Kotak Mahindra Bank to offer financial services, which ended in 2006. Goldman has formed its unit for various financial services after it sold 25% stake each in both Kotak Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital.
The US bank formed Goldman Sachs (India) Securities in 2006 to start merchant banking, stock broking and underwriting businesses. In 2007, it launched Goldman Sachs Asset Management for investment advisory, asset management and portfolio management services. The firm has also applied to start a primary dealership in government securities in the country, in which it plans to invest $50 million.
Goldman also has a 20% stake in Chennai-based NBFC Shriram Credit Company, which it bought for Rs 300 crore.
