Religare Enterprises on Tuesday announced that it is going to set up a sales and distribution outfit in Japan to sell its financial products. The company has hired a dedicated team from KBC Financial Products, a financial firm specialising in equities and equity-linked derivatives in Japan.

The move is part of the strategic global investments plans of Religare group. Last month, the company acquired a majority stake in Northgate Capital, a leading global private equity and venture capital firm.

The company aims to target rich clients in the country by selling various financial products and providing advisory services. “We are going to sell all kinds of financial products and will be catering to mainly high net worth clients and big ticket institutions,” a Religare official told Financial Chroncile.

The company has also applied for investment advisory and agency business licences with the Japanese financial regulators and will follow it up over a period of time by applying for a discretionary investment management licence, a company release said.

Last month, the company had announced that is has earmarked $1 billion towards its strategic investments in diversified asset management businesses globally. The first in a series of initiatives planned was the strategic investment in Northgate Capital.

“We are looking for this kind of strategic investments in other parts of the world also. The acquisition of Northgate Capital is still under closure. The total assets under management with the acquisition will become around $8 billion,” the official said.

Religare offers products and services ranging from insurance, asset management, broking and lending solutions to investment banking and wealth management. At present, it manages assets of more than $6 billion.