New York-headquartered financial services provider Cantor Fitzgerald will enter the institutional brokerage business in India.

"We are setting up a base in India for institutional brokerage business in India," Cantor Fitzgerald India MD Asad Sultan told PTI.

The company is planning to adopt the joint venture model for the brokerage business. "We have signed a basic agreement for the joint venture. It could be a 75:25 or 50:50 partnership," Sultan said.

The JV would be with a large industrial house, he said.

Cantor Fitzgerald would begin operations by early fourth-quarter of this financial year.

Cantor entered the Indian market about an year ago raising funds through Global Depository Receipt and Foreign Currency Convertible Bond for Rolta and Temptation Foods.

"The institutional business in India has grown tremendously since 2005 and it is expected to continue the growth rate as the Indian market size scales up and attracts a greater number of participants who are awakening to the opportunities to invest here," he said.

Cantor would be investing USD 5 million and hiring 12 to 15 senior professionals here.

Globally, it provides services in equity and fixed income capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking, asset management, clearing and market data services.

The financial services company entered Asia in 2003 through Hong Kong. Earlier this year, it set up a base in Singapore