FirstFT: BlackRock strikes joint venture with Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services

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Good morning. India’s richest man and the world’s largest money manager are joining forces.

BlackRock has struck a joint venture with the financial services arm of Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s empire to launch a digital-first asset manager aimed at serving India’s growing investor population.

BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, and Jio Financial Services each plan to invest up to $150mn in the 50-50 venture. The announcement comes less than a week after Jio Financial Services officially demerged from Ambani’s larger Reliance Industries conglomerate, India’s biggest listed company by market share.

While property and jewellery have long been assets of choice for many Indian households, the companies will hope to profit from the growing pool of savers who are including financial products in their retirement plans.

This is BlackRock’s second effort to crack the Indian retail market after it sold out of a joint venture with DSP Group in 2018.

“India represents an enormously important opportunity. The convergence of rising affluence, favourable demographics, and digital transformation across industries is reshaping the market in incredible ways,” said Rachel Lord, head of BlackRock’s Asian and Pacific business. Read the full story.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Results: Earnings reports are due from Samsung Electronics, Singapore Airlines, Barclays, Ford Motor Company, Shell and more. See our Week Ahead newsletter for the full list.

• Monetary policy: The ECB has signalled plans to raise rates by a quarter percentage point on Thursday, extending the European central bank’s unprecedented year-long monetary policy tightening in an effort to bring inflation back down from recent record highs to its 2 per cent target.

• Russia-Africa summit: The second Russia-Africa summit starts today in St Petersburg, but many African leaders will be absent, and the Kremlin has complained about western pressure to stop leaders attending.

• Korea: Today is the 70th anniversary of the armistice signed during the Korean War, although North and South Korea officially remain at war.

Five more top stories

1. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the highest level in 22 years. The US central bank lifted the federal funds rate to a new target range of 5.25-5.5 per cent, resuming its aggressive monetary tightening campaign to bring inflation under control.

• More US news: Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has pleaded not guilty to tax charges after a judge said she was not prepared to sign off on his plea agreement with prosecutors during a court hearing on Wednesday.

2. British billionaire Joe Lewis made his first court appearance in New York after surrendering to US authorities to face criminal charges over alleged insider trading. The real estate investor whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur football club was charged on Tuesday with 19 counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and make false statements. Read the full story.

3. Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest foldable phones at a glitzy event in Seoul, pinning hopes on the splashy premium phones to help it regain lost ground in the luxury smartphone market. Here’s more on the increasingly competitive niche market of foldable phones.

• More tech news: Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI have formed a group to research increasingly powerful AI and establish best practices for controlling it.

4. Taiwan’s armed forces have practised repelling an air assault on the country’s largest international airport for the first time, as Taipei seeks to strengthen its defences against aggression from China with more realistic military drills. Here’s how the exercises unfolded.

5. Volkswagen is investing $700mn in electric vehicle group Xpeng as the two join forces to boost the German carmaker’s lagging sales in China. The deal will give VW a 5 per cent stake in the Guangzhou-based group as well as a seat as an “observer” on its board. Here are more details on the deal.

• More automobiles news: Nissan and Renault have finalised a restructuring of their relationship, with the Japanese carmaker’s chief executive saying the growing challenge in China had been “a wake-up call” for rebooting the troubled alliance.

News in-depth

Investors are widely expecting the Bank of Japan to buck the global trend and keep monetary policy on hold on Friday. While most major central banks are coming towards the end of the historically rapid tightening cycles they unleashed in an effort to hose down inflation, the BoJ has largely held firm, happy to see Japan’s relatively tame inflation pick up after decades in the freezer. But a clutch of heavy-hitting investment banks is warning investors to brace for a potential surprise.

We’re also reading and watching . . . 

• Singapore’s GIC: The sovereign wealth fund has warned that the golden age for private equity firms has “come to an end”.

• 🎬 FT film: From the production of cheap battlefield drones to AI-powered missile warning systems, Ukraine’s tech sector has put itself on the frontline of the war effort.

• Iowa or bust: Nearly all of the Republican presidential candidates are betting their futures on the Midwestern state as they try to halt the seemingly inevitable march by Donald Trump to the party’s nomination in 2024.

Image of the day

Speculation is growing over the sudden removal of China’s foreign minister Qin Gang, a month after the former high-flying favourite of President Xi Jinping disappeared from public view. Some analysts are wondering whether the appointment of a veteran diplomat to replace Qin is a stop-gap measure until a more suitable, younger candidate can be found. More than 24 hours after the announcement of Qin’s replacement, the foreign minister’s section of the ministry’s website said simply: “Updating”.

Take a break from the news

Summer “workcations” are on the rise. Many companies view workcations — essentially doing a job from a holiday location — as a free post-pandemic perk they can give staff in a tight labour market, but some also believe “work from anywhere” weeks can boost productivity.

Additional contributions by Leah Quinn and Tee Zhuo