Athira Sethu
Kochi, 25 March 2026
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its approval to a plan by Avenir Investment RSC to acquire a majority stake in Sammaan Capital, a financial firm based in India. The RBI approval, which was announced on Tuesday, will allow Avenir Investment RSC, which is a part of International Holding Company (IHC) of Abu Dhabi, to proceed with the acquisition plan.
Under this deal, the International Holding Company of Abu Dhabi will acquire a majority stake of 66.5% of Sammaan Capital, formerly known as Indiabulls Housing Finance. The deal is worth approximately ₹7,700 crore at the current market price. This is one of the biggest deals by a company from the Middle East in the financial services space of India. This is a major moment in the relationship between Indian and Middle Eastern companies in the financial space.
However, there are three important conditions set by RBI on this deal. Firstly, Sammaan Capital will not be allowed to raise deposits from the public. This means that the company will not be able to collect money from individuals and the public. This is an important condition for financial institutions in India. Secondly, Avenir Investment RSC has to complete the share transfer within one year from the approval date. This means that if Avenir Investment RSC fails to do so within a year from the approval date by RBI, then the approval for the deal given by RBI will be cancelled. This means that the deal will not be able to go through.
The third condition set by RBI on this deal is related to the ownership of shares. This condition states that if Avenir Investment RSC owns less than 26% of shares in Sammaan Capital after completing the share transfer, then they need to get approval from RBI to increase their ownership to 26% or more. This ensures that Avenir Investment RSC retains enough shares in Sammaan Capital to maintain control over the business.
The share price of Sammaan Capital was trading 11.4% up at Rs 154.41 per share in NSE on Wednesday morning trade.
