Exclusive-Deutsche Bank's DWS and Japan's Nippon Life in talks on India venture

By Tom Sims, Jayshree P Upadhyay and Emma-Victoria Farr

FRANKFURT/MUMBAI (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank's investment arm DWS is in talks to form an asset management joint venture in India with the Japanese insurer Nippon Life, four people with knowledge of the matter said, as the German company seeks to expand in Asia.

The negotiations are at an early stage and expected to take time due to regulatory issues, said the people, asking for anonymity to allow them to describe the private talks.

DWS, with more than 1 trillion euros ($1.13 trillion) in assets under management, is one of Europe's biggest fund managers. Nippon Life, as Japan's largest insurer, has been on an international buying spree.

The discussions, which have not previously been reported, follow a breakdown in talks for a separate DWS joint venture in China that marked a setback for Deutsche's Asia ambitions.

They are another example of foreign financial firms turning to India, the world's most populous country with a growing middle class.

Last year, Indian regulators gave initial approval for a mutual fund business between Jio Financial Services, owned by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager.

Nippon Life and DWS already have a relationship in that the insurer owns 5% of the German company and the two work together in areas such as distribution.

DWS and its majority-owner Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, both declined to comment, while Nippon Life in Japan declined to confirm the talks.

In a significant shift, DWS CEO Stefan Hoops said he was ready for inorganic growth after years of recovery from the upheaval surrounding greenwashing accusations.

He told analysts last week the focus was on Asia and he imagined "the next couple of months to be quite interesting".

Nippon Life became DWS's second-largest investor after it bought its 5% stake when Deutsche Bank listed DWS in 2018. Deutsche retained control with 79%.

Ever since, Nippon Life and DWS have had a strategic alliance, encompassing areas including distribution and research. DWS has long said it would work with partners to expand in Asia.

Nippon Life already operates a fund management business in India with 5.67 trillion Indian rupees ($67.18 billion) under management, and it cooperates with DWS on a European-listed India government bond exchange traded fund.

Regulators in India at the end of last year eased rules to allow fund houses to launch passive-only funds through a spin-off entity and with easier compliance requirements as compared to fund houses who manage active funds. 

DWS and Nippon Life could take advantage of the change to launch a separate jointly owned company for ETFs and passively managed funds, said one of the people with knowledge of the discussions.

Meanwhile, in China, DWS aims to increase its 30% stake in the Chinese fund manager Harvest.

For years, Deutsche Bank, DWS and Chinese lender Postal Savings Bank of China were in talks for a joint venture, but those talks collapsed after the German companies resisted Beijing's demands to raise their stake in the deal.

($1 = 0.8831 euros)

($1 = 84.3975 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Anton Bridge in Tokyo; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Barbara Lewis)