Country's largest lender State Bank of India hopes to commence its custodial joint venture with French banking major Societe Generale by the first quarter of next fiscal, a top SBI official said.
"We have already received the FIPB approval for the joint venture.... If things go as planned, we expect to start the JV operations by the first quarter of next financial year," State Bank of India Deputy Managing Director & Group Executive (subsidiaries) R Sridharan told .
SBI entered into an agreement for a JV--which aims to offer security services to foreign and domestic investors-- with Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS), a division of Societe Generale Group, in June this year.
Through this JV, SBI would offer a range of custodial services such as safe-keeping and settlement, reporting, corporate actions, dividends collection and distribution, proxy voting, fund administration and providing market news and information to its clients.
State Bank will have a majority 65 % stake in the JV, while the French-firm will have the remaining holding. The JV will have a minimum initial capital of around Rs 100 cr.
Following the FIPB approval, the JV now will have to receive approvals from Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Reserve Bank. According to banking sources, the JV is understood to have received permission from the central bank already.
According to the initial agreements, the CEO of the new company would come from SBI while SocGen will name the Deputy CEO from its side. The JV would target clients in the institutional side, mainly foreign institutional investors.