London’s oldest independent stock-broking company may chalk up another historic landmark this weekend by becoming the first British financial firm to sell up to an Indian buyer.

Religare, the Indian financial services group, has bid £49 million for Hichens, Harrison in a move that observers say is designed to fast-track a path to AIM, the market for smaller companies, for its subcontinental clients. They also said that it was likely to mark the start of a further Indian expansion into the UK financial services industry.

Roddy Sale, a consultant and former veteran Bombay banker, said: “This is primarily about Religare expanding its product portfolio, about being able to raise money in London for Indian companies. Dealing with the FSA is quite time-consuming. Religare is set on quick growth.”

Gagan Banga, the chief executive of Indiabulls, India’s largest retail brokerage, told The Times that the Religare bid showed that Indian financial firms “have come of age”. Others – including his own – are eyeing further offshore acquisitions, he said.

Hichens’s brokers, meanwhile, are said to be sanguine about losing their long-held independence. One said: “No, the price does not offer a great premium, but they have recognised that the Indians can give them some scale. Some of them are actually getting quite excited about it.”

If successful, the deal will, however, surely involve a clash of cultures, as one of London’s most venerable brokerages is subsumed into a sprawling Indian conglomerate.

Religare, which has a retail presence in 400 Indian cities, became a member of India’s National Stock Exchange only in 1994. Last year it listed on that exchange, on which it currently has a market capitalisation of £350 million – having fallen by half since January.

By contrast, Hichens is known to have been in business in July 1803, soon after the London Stock Exchange was constituted.

Ranbaxy Promoter Group, Religare’s parent company, is controlled by the brothers Malvinder Singh, 35, and Shivinder Singh, 32, who are worth more than £1 billion. Their fortune was built on Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s largest generic-drugs firm, which was founded by their grandfather and last year recorded revenues of $1.3 billion (£648 million). The two graduates of Duke University in the US, whose business empire ranges from Fortis Healthcare, India’s second-largest private hospital company, to South Asia’s largest chain of pathology labs and an IT outsourcing venture, have made no secret of their international ambitions.

They say they intend to build Religare into a “globally trusted brand – the investment gateway of India”. Sunil Godhwani, Religare’s chief executive, said in India this week: “We are constantly evaluating opportunities to strengthen our business, especially our institutional business.”

Religare has already expanded its presence in insurance and wealth management through joint ventures with Aegon, of the Netherlands, and Macquarie, the Australian bank.

Hichens has made emerging markets a priority and recently said that it expects solid returns from its focus on the sector. It has plans to open an office in India this year after founding bases in Qatar and Singapore.

Religare is expected to use Hichens’s status as a nominated adviser (Nomad) on AIM to bring more Indian companies to the London market. AIM has cultivated a solid reputation for attracting overseas companies in recent years, but still only about 120 of its 1,600 companies are based in Asia, according to a report by the London School of Economics. Of those, 21 come from India, while 49 are from China. Hichens said that the talks were at the “end-game stage” – though a deal has not been finalised. Its spokesman said: “We see tremendous synergies – they do not have a presence outside India, we do not have one in India.”

Hichens cited a preIPO placement carried out for a Qatar company now expected to list on AIM as the sort of deal that it sees as possible in India.

Unchanged since 1803

— Hichens, Harrison was founded by Robert Hichens. Although the precise date of formation is not known, it was in business in July 1803, shortly after the Stock Exchange was first constitutionally formed

— Mr Hichens was born in 1782 into a well-connected Cornish family engaged in fishing for pilchards. The trade was poor in pilchards when Mr Hichens reached working age and so he set up a stockbrokers after a short stint at a London shipping company

— No other City stockbroking firm has survived 200 years in almost its original format. That means that unlike most brokers, Hichens, Harrison is not an amalgamation of a large number of firms

— Hichens became Hichens & Harrison when Frederic Harrison became a partner in the early 1800s

— Hichens is often misspelt as Hitchens, Hitchans or Hichans

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