Asia-Pacific-focused private equity firm PAG, current owners of the listed financial services company, has revived attempts to sell the business after a year’s gap. Non-binding bids also in from 6 funds for 54% worth $1.8 billion. Two more strate...
Asia-Pacific-focused private equity firm PAG, current owners of the listed financial services company, has revived attempts to sell the business after a year’s gap. HSBC is competing with at least half a dozen PE competitors including Brookfield, Warburg Pincus, EQT, CVC Capital, Permira, Chrys Capital and General Atlantic (GA) for the asset, said the people cited above.
Investors are queuing up to tap into India’s growing appetite for investment and spending, joining an increasingly competitive field.
At least two more strategic players are expected to join the fray this week after the aforementioned entities submitted non-binding offers last week in what’s turning out to be a rerun of events in 2025. A run-in with the Securities & Exchange Board of India impacted Nuvama’s stock price last August.
Volatility in Scrip
This involved Jane Street, one of its key clients in the capital markets custodian business, and the regulatory cloud eventually tripped up the sale process.
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PAG relaunched the divestment of Nuvama, formerly Edelweiss Wealth Management, last month, reappointing advisors Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan. At its current market value of Rs 32,116 crore, PAG’s 53.98% stake–held via Pagac Ecstasy Pte Ltd (53.12%) and Asia Pragati Strategic Investment Fund–is worth Rs 17,336 crore ($1.8 billion). The transaction will also trigger an open offer for an additional 26% of the company.
Nuvama’s shares have been volatile over the past year. On a split-adjusted basis, the stock rose from around Rs 1,200 in late August 2025 to about Rs 1,805 by August 28 this year, a gain of about 50%. After trading in the Rs 1,100–1,500 range, it rallied in April, hitting a 52-week high of Rs 2,067 in July. It closed Monday at Rs 1,753, down 2.9% from Friday’s close.
Last November, the company announced a 1:5 stock split that saw the face value revised to Rs 2 from Rs 10, while the authorized share capital remained unchanged at Rs 799.54 crore.
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PAG invested $325 million to acquire a majority stake in Edelweiss Wealth Management in March 2021 with the firm getting listed in 2023. Industry observers said the large cheque size for a listed company buyout is likely to nudge contenders to form consortiums.
Both Chrys Capital and EQT for example had teamed up to buy Credilla, the education loan business of HDFC Ltd. Some candidates are also open to carving out certain pieces of the business--wealth and capital markets--instead of picking up all the multiple pieces that also include verticals such as asset services (clearing and custody), capital markets including institutional equities (IE) and investment banking (IB), and asset management.
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General Atlantic, Brookfield, EQT, HSBC and Permira declined to comment. Warburg Pincus, ChrysCapital and CVC Capital didn’t respond to queries. PAG remained unreachable.
Wealth Effect
“So far, most of the candidates are common from last time except a few,” said an executive whose company is in the fray. “But it’s an expensive buy even after its stock split. Since last September, the stock price is up 37.21%. Even though the Jane Street issue has been dealt with and the company has derisked client concentration, the hypercompetitive landscape of wealth management will weigh in.”
Nuvama’s wealth management segment has become its mainstay with client assets growing to Rs 5.36 lakh crore as of June 30. The group largely caters to affluent and high-networth individuals (HNIs), ultra HNIs (UHNIs), family offices and institutional clients, with products covering investment advisory and management, estate planning, lending and broking services. The asset services business, the second largest portfolio for the group at 30%, was pegged at Rs 1.59 lakh crore as of June 30. Three-fourths of these were assets under custody with the rest under clearing.
It is also a prominent player in the institutional equities and investment banking businesses with a leading position in public debt issuances. However, the asset management business is at a relatively nascent stage, comprising alternate investment funds (AIFs) and portfolio management schemes (PMS). This business had an AUM of about Rs 13,261 crore as of June 30–up 12% from a year ago.
Robust Growth
“The wealth management business continues to see robust flows in the recurring revenue-earning segment,” said Prayesh Jain, analyst at Motilal Oswal, earlier this month, following first-quarter results.
India represents a significant long-term opportunity for wealth managers as rapid economic growth, rising incomes, entrepreneurship and financialisation of savings create a larger pool of investable wealth. Long seen as the number one player in Hong Kong, HSBC is keen to project its private banking brand into mainland China and neighbouring Asian countries to attract young entrepreneurs and wealthy clients.
Most bulge-bracket PE funds—Blackstone, Bain, Carlyle, Advent, and KKR—have written large cheques to back companies in this space. General Atlantic was a major investor in 360 One WAM Ltd (formerly IIFL Wealth Management), a key competitor of Nuvama Wealth, owning a minority 21.6% stake before exiting in 2023. Last year, 360 One acquired UBS’s onshore Indian wealth management business in a deal that also saw the Swiss financial giant take a minority 5% stake in the firm.
According to a recent PwC report, India’s asset and wealth management industry is projected to reach $1.7 trillion in assets under management by 2030, implying a compound annual growth rate of 11.6% since 2024.
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