03-09-2012, 05:22 PM
ANALYSIS OF MERCHANT BANKING IN INDIA
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INTRODUCTION
Original Definition: A Merchant Bank is a British term for a bank providing various financial services such as accepting bills arising out of trade, providing advice on acquisitions, mergers, foreign exchange, underwriting new issues, and portfolio management.
The Focus Definition: A Merchant Bank can be generally described as a financial services company with a private equity investment arm offering investment banking and ancillary services as well. Because a merchant bank acts not only as an advisor and broker but also as a principal, a merchant bank has a longer term approach than a typical investment bank and is highly concerned with the viability of each investment opportunity and providing the right advice for a strong partnership with each client company.
In banking, a merchant bank is a traditional term for an Investment Bank. It can also be used to describe the private equity activities of banking. This article is about the history of banking as developed by merchants, from the Middle Ages onwards.
Amidst the swift changes sweeping the financial world, Merchant Banking has emerged as an indispensable financial advisory package. Merchant banking is a service-oriented function that transfers capital from those who own to those who can use it. They try to identify the needs of the investors & corporate sector & advice entrepreneurs what to do to be successful.
The merchant banking has been defined as to what a merchant banker does. A merchant Banker has been defined by Securities Exchange Board Of India (Merchant Banker) rules, 1992, as “Any person who is engaged in the business of issue management either by making arrangements regarding selling, buying or subscribing to securities or acting as manager, consultant, advisor or rendering corporate advisory services in relation to such issue managemen
MERCHANT BANKING HISTORY
In late 17th and early 18th century Europe, the largest companies of the world was merchant adventurers. Supported by wealthy groups of people and a network of overseas trading posts, the collected large amounts of money to finance trade across parts of the world. For example, The East India Trading Company secured a Royal Warrant from England, providing the firm with official rights to lucrative trading activities in India. This company was the forerunner in developing the crown jewel of the English Empire. The English colony was started by what we would today call merchant bankers, because of the firm's involvement in financing, negotiating, and implementing trade transactions. The colonies of other European countries were started in the same manner. For example, the Dutch merchant adventurers were active in what are now Indonesia; the French and Portuguese acted similarly in their respective colonies. The American colonies also represent the product of merchant banking, as evidenced by the activities of the famous Hudson Bay Company. One does not typically look at these countries' economic development as having been fueled by merchant bank adventurers. However, the colonies and their progress stem from the business of merchant banks, according to today's accepted sense of the word. Merchant banks, now so called, are in fact the original "banks". These were invented in the middle Ages by Italian grain merchants. As the Lombardy merchants and bankers grew in stature on the back of the Lombard plains cereal crops many of the displaced Jews who had fled persecution after 613 entered the trade. They brought with them to the grain trade ancient practices that had grown to normalcy in the middle and far east, along the Silk Road, for the finance of long distance goods trades.
TRADATIONAL MERCHANT BANKING
Merchant Banking, as the term has evolved in Europe from the 18th century to today, pertained to an individual or a banking house whose primary function was to facilitate the business process between a product and the financial requirements for its development. Merchant banking services span from the earliest negotiations from a transaction to its actual consummation between buyer and seller.
In particular, the merchant banker acted as a capital sources whose primary activity was directed towards a commodity trader/cargo owner who was involved in the buying, selling, and shipping of goods. The role of the merchant banker, who had the expertise to understand a particular transaction, was to arrange the necessary capital and ensure that the transaction would ultimately produce "collectable" profits. Often, the merchant banker also became involved in the actual negotiations between a buyer and seller in a transaction.
MERCHANT BANKING IN INDIA
In India Merchant Banking activities started from the year 1967, following the footsteps of similar activities in UK & USA. Currently Merchant Banking activity has mushroomed in the Indian capital market with both public & private sector settings up their respective merchant Banking divisions. Currently, the total no. of merchant bankers in India are approx. 1450 with more than 930 registered with SEBI. The SEBI authorized Merchant Bankers Include merchant Banking divisions of All India Financial Institutions, nationalized & foreign banks, subsidies of the commercial banks, private merchant banks engaged in stock broking, underwriting activities & financial consultancy & investment advisory service firms.