Haribhakti Consulting has just been renamed Moores Rowland International (India) Pvt Ltd, in which the UK-based firm, either directly or through its international affiliates, will pick up equity at a later stage. Moores Rowland International currently operates in 70 countries with a combined revenue exceeding $1 billion.

John Cox, the executive director of Moore Rowland International was in India to check on crucial parameters including quality of operations, internal process, degree of repeat assignments and client satisfaction indices, whose opinions were referred to the executive board of MRI following which the joint venture was sealed.

The joint venture firm will focus onoffering one-stop consulting services and specialise in M&As, public sector disinvestment, corporate restructuring, risk management for banks and financial institutions, besides structuring and blending financial packages for large infrastructure projects. The firm will also target consultancy assignments for mega projects being funded by the multilateral agencies -- the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank. Moores Rowland International is registered as a "consultant" firm with the World Bank and ADB.

Equity participation by Moores Rowland International in the joint venture company will be worked out a later stage. "An equity stake may be taken up directly by the UK-based firm or through one or more of its international affiliates," Moores Rowland International (India) Pvt Ltd's executive director Thakor Desai said.

"Our top priority will be to penetrate more on risk management products, including derivatives and hedging. We will offer a comprehensive risk managementsystem incorporating the best international practices that Moores Rowland International has adopted in over 70 countries," Desai said. At the same time, the firm plans to penetrate the international markets through MRI affiliates abroad. "It will be a reciprocal arrangement whereby we will bring MRI experts for specialised disciplines where our expertise is not adequate, and provide support to overseas affiliates with MRI's UK office as the facilitator," Desai said.

Solutions already adopted globally by MRI member firms will be customised for Indian circumstances, said Desai, pointing out that this will reduce costs of developing new solutions for each new problem," eliminating the need to constantly re-invent the wheel."

Consultancy business in India is passing through a boom, with whopping growth estimated in the region of 25-30 per cent every year. The post-1991 economic liberalisation opened up new vistas for this nascent business, as more and more Indian companies geared up to restructure theiroperations and become globally competitive. Nationalised banks, with a very low degree of mechanisation and abysmal productivity levels, also offered unique business prospects to the consultancy sector, which zoomed to over Rs 500 crore in the last few years.

Banks, for example, will require substantial consultancy inputs to refine their operations, especially in the field of asset-liability management, reducing credit risk and cross-border risks, where the firm can act as a facilitator. "The recent RBI directives in this regard are a clear expression of the central bank's concern with these major issues," Desai said, "these will also open up substantial business avenues for us." The banking sector also offers substantial spread management opportunities for consultancy firms, Desai pointed out. To grab this new-found opportunity, consultancy majors from around the world lined up with their set of solutions. The "Big Five": Arthur Andersen, Price Waterhouse-Coopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Delloite ToucheTohmatsu International (DTTI), have already set up Indian subsidiaries to provide fool-proof solutions to Indian companies. "To gain a foothold in the Indian market, we will offer solution packages which will be qualitatively at par, if not better, as compared to the Big Five, but will come at a lesser cost," Desai said.