In the 14 months since he joined as CEO of the Aditya Birla Group’s Financial Services, Ajay Srinivasan has been busy expanding the business. In an interview with Abhineet Kumar, the chief executive says that despite the global financial turmoil, India has several factors that suggest consumption will continue to grow and will drive economic growth this year. Excerpts:
Your insurance and mutual fund businesses, which were till recently losing market, are now among the top five in their respective sectors. How did you achieve this?
Our vision is to build a leadership position in a broad-based set of businesses that are integrated. We have focused on building infrastructure and scalable platforms, broadening our product offering and strengthening our teams in the last 12 months.
This has begun to yield some results. In our life insurance business, for the quarter ended June 2008, we were ranked No 4 among the private sector players. We have achieved a year-to-date market share of 8.15 per cent, a significant jump from 5.3 per cent in March 2007. Similarly, in our mutual fund business we are ranked No 5, with a market share of 7.3 per cent as in June 2008, up from 6.2 per cent in March 2007.
What would be the impact of the US financial crisis on the Indian capital markets?
As the US begins to de-leverage and de-risk, there is bound to be an impact on the the country’s economy, economies linked to it and on capital flows from the western world. Considering the capital markets today and the extent of FII investments, India is certainly coupled with other markets. However, India’s economy will possibly decouple, given its large domestic market and comparatively lower exposure to the external sector. India has several triggers that suggest consumption will continue to grow and will drive economic growth this year.
But the demand for financial products will surely be affected?
Initially, there is clearly an element of risk aversion across the world. However, ultimately, financial services growth is linked to economic growth and if our view of the Indian economy is right, then the sector should continue to grow strongly.
You recently bought a broking firm. Are you using the industry downturn to expand your business?
When we are building businesses with a long-term view, we are less concerned about short-term impacts. The basic growth in India, the high savings rate and low penetration of financial products suggest there is a huge yet-to-be-tapped opportunity. We believe this is a good time to be building businesses to tap that potential.
What is the focus of your NBFC, Birla Global Finance?
Our NBFC is not meant to be a customer acquisition business and we don’t have plans of entering, for example, consumer finance. We see this business as a fund-based support for other businesses and key customers.
What is your strategy for the private equity business?
We have put together a good team for this and will look to raise third-party funds in the not-too-distant future. Our understanding of operating in many sectors and the group’s huge network of vendors and buyers give us a good vantage point.
