Bangalore: Taking forward its partnership with Nippon Life, Reliance Capital Group has begun managing the funds of Japanese financial services giant for investments in India.

Nippon Life, which holds 26-percent stake each in Reliance Life Insurance and Reliance Capital Asset Management Company (RCAM), has made its first investment in RCAM Equity Funds as part of an expanded partnership between the two groups, RCAM said in a statement.

Both Reliance Life and RCAM are part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance group's financial services arm Reliance Capital. RCAM said that the investment from Nippon Life Insurance (NLI) has further strengthened their partnership, but did not disclose the amount.

NLI is a Fortune-500 company with over USD 600-billion assets-under-management. However, they have minimal investments in India. "We look forward to working closely with them to build their India portfolio and manage sizeable part of their investments in India in the near term. This first investment is a step forward in that direction," RCAM CEO Sundeep Sikka said.

Nippon Life's general manager-international planning and operations, Yutaka Ideguchi said: "This is a step forward for a stronger business partnership. We truly appreciate the dedicated efforts and support by the RCAM team and look forward to their expertise in managing NLI money in India."

Ideguchi is also on the board of RCAM, which recently concluded a sale of 26 percent-strategic stake to Nippon Life Insurance. Both partners had agreed to evaluate more areas for strengthening their partnership including RCAM managing NLI money in India and NLI distributing RCAM products in Japan.

Nippon Life has demonstrated strong confidence in India,and Reliance group, by investing over Rs 4,500 crore in a short span of 12 months in RCAM and Reliance Life. After closure of the 26-percent stake sale in RCAM in August, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh had said that the group would look at further expanding its partnership with NipponLife.

"Nippon Life has USD 600 billion (Rs 30 lakh crore) of assets, but a very small part of that is currently invested in India. There are two-three areas where Reliance Capital could look at working together with the Japanese financial services giant," Ghosh had said.

Reliance Capital has been looking to get a part of Nippon's assets-under-management to India and help manage sizeable investments here by the Japanese giant.

Nippon Life Insurance president Yoshinobu Tsutsui had earlier said that India was a growing market and the group sees strong growth potential in the long-term.