Hemendra Kothari sells stake, exits DSP Merrill

DSP Merrill Lynch (OOTC:MERIZ) will now be fully owned by Merrill Lynch or effectively by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) , which had taken over Merrill Lynch for $50 billion last year. As a result, Bank of America owned 90 per cent in DSP Merrill Lynch in India.
Mr Kothari, a high-profile investment banker, is also retiring as Chairman of the company at the end of the month. Mr Kevan Watts will head the company, it is learnt.
Mr Kothari said the sale was planned around six months ago, but he had decided to wait a while. “When the time came for announcement of the merger of Merrill Lynch with Bank of America, I felt it was the right time to sell when integration is taking place across the world,” he told Business Line.
He founded the company in 1975 when it was called DSP Financial Consultants. It was named DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd in 1995 after a stake sale to the American company. Holding in MF biz
Mr Kothari will still serve as the non-executive Chairman of asset management firm DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, a joint venture between the DSP group (NASDAQ:DSPG) of firms owned by the Kothari family and New York-headquartered BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BNY) (NYSE:BLH) (NYSE:BNJ) (NYSE:BPK) (NYSE:BBF) (NYSE:BHK) (NYSE:BFZ) (NYSE:BJZ) (NYSE:BLK)
The asset management company had acquired 40 per cent stake held by Merrill Lynch in the mutual fund DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers in January. The remaining 60 per cent is held by DSP Group.
After the transfer DSP Merrill Lynch was renamed DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, and their mutual fund was renamed DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund. The fund has Rs 14,000 crore in assets under management at the end of February.
The mutual fund business is expanding and the company plans to expand its employee base, said Mr Kothari. Some jobs were being cut but, in the net, one would see an addition of staff, he said.
With the day-to-day affairs of the company being managed by a professional team, he would now be free to concentrate on philanthropic activities.

Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3128885