Nerine Group has become the first Channel Islands independent trust company to open an office in India with the launch of Nerine Advisory Services in Delhi.
It is a major step forward for the Guernsey-founded business and cements its plans to continue to expand in Asia. It is also a significant move for Guernsey as a jurisdiction, flying the flag in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
India’s economy is expected to expand by 8.5% this year, according to Morgan Stanley, and its growth rate could overtake China’s by 2013 if not before. Some economists think India will grow faster than any other large country over the next 25 years.
Nerine, with offices in British Virgin Islands, Geneva and Hong Kong as well as Guernsey, has been involved with advising on Indian inward and outward investment over the past five years and has a proven track record in the region.
Group executive chairman, Keith Corbin (pictured), says the opening of the Delhi office was a natural progression for Nerine.
“Our group strategy is always to provide sterling service for the needs of our high net worth private clients and families and this ethos marries well with the Indian market as we have already experienced,” he says. “Nerine sees its “family office” approach to private client wealth management planning as ideally suited to India where the family unit is extremely important in modern Indian society and where family succession planning is essential.”
Nerine’s Delhi office will be managed in Delhi by resident director, Pranav Khanna, a chartered accountant who completed his accountancy training in the UK and worked in London for a number of years. Khanna’s father was only the second ever Indian chartered accountant to be trained in the UK. Khanna will work closely with Nerine Hong Kong’s managing director Matthew Corbin.
“Nerine’s Hong Kong office has a wealth of experience of working in China and India will follow China’s growth trajectory. Despite some stark cultural differences with China, there are many similarities to India in terms of its markets and financial policies and Nerine is well placed to demonstrate its knowledge and experience across Asia,” Corbin says.
Corbin says India’s legal and commercial infrastructure is common law based which is compatible with the existing Nerine international network.
“It increases the attraction and ease of doing business in India,” he says. “India’s business focus will be on assisting clients with their planning for inward investment into India, helping Indian clients with international business interests as well as developing succession planning arrangements for domestic Indian assets.”
