Edelweiss Private Wealth Management is a classic Indian financial success story. It is professional and worldly, innovative and urbane, and undoubtedly one of the best private banking outfits.
It is a little different from its peers too, in that it focuses on building relationships with up-and-coming entrepreneurs, and helping them manage their wealth as it grows. As their fortunes rise, so does Edelweiss’s: total assets under management rose to a little shy of $19 billion in 2019, against $16.5 billion the previous year.
Despite being an all-round provider of elite private banking services, Edelweiss also specializes in managing the fortunes of the country’s wealthiest families, offering a raft of services from its offices in 10 Indian cities. Via its long-standing partnership with specialist intelligence provider Campden Wealth, it offers closed-door networking events to high net-worth families, and publishes the only annual report on family offices.
Its latest Emerging Ideas conference, held in September 2019, attracted 600 people, including 150 company owners and 380 UHNWs.
In 2019 alone, it hosted the following: three family coaching sessions tailored to the needs of family offices; six lifestyle events for UHNWs; 17 philanthropy sessions focused on sustainability; and 28 investment roadshows attended by Edelweiss chief executive and chairman Rashesh Shah.
The group reckons it generates 16% of its AuM by serving family offices, offering everything from capital raising (debt and equity) to structured credit, and business and tax advisory to treasury management.
Given that most Indian family offices are embedded in companies – many of which are very young, owned by a first-generation promoter, and growing very fast – as they tap into new onshore revenue streams and fresh capital from global investors, Edelweiss is in a great position to remain a leader in onshore private banking services, including in family offices, for years to come.