India’s largest wealth manager focused on ultra-high-net-worth individuals, 360 One WAM, has agreed to acquire popular Indian mutual fund investment app ET Money for about $44 million. Earlier called IIFL Wealth Management, 360 One disclosed (PDF) the deal in a stock exchange filing Wednesday evening.
The move marks 360 One’s foray into the fast-growing wealth tech space for the masses and is expected to complement its existing offerings for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
ET Money boasts over 900,000 transacting clients and tracks assets under management of approximately $8.3 billion. The platform has been a popular choice for retail investors, with monthly mutual fund net flows of around $89.9 million.
ET Money is the second startup from local media powerhouse Times Internet’s portfolio to be sold in recent weeks. Amazon reached an agreement to buy assets of on-demand streaming service MX Player for less than $100 million last week, TechCrunch first reported.
The acquisition will allow the combined entity to leverage their product suites, domain expertise, and advisory solutions to tap into a larger user base, 360 One said in the stock exchange filing.
ET Money “likely generates the bulk of its revenues from its fee-paying advisory proposition, which has 76,000 active clients with Rs12 bn of AUM (implying ~2% revenue yields). Prima facie, we believe ET Money business/client base have little overlap with 360 One and hence likely to operate as a separate vertical. 360 One expects the combined business to benefit from its in-house product suite, broking service and lending needs,” Kotak analysts said in a note Thursday.
Times Internet acquired Moneysights in 2014 for an undisclosed amount and later rebranded it to ET Money.
