North foray on Indiabulls agenda

Retail financial services company Indiabulls is in expansion mode in the north. While the company is opening a Chandigarh branch tomorrow, it plans to open seven more branches in the region in the next couple of weeks at Mohali, Moga, Jammu, Pathankot, Sonepat, Sangrur and Faridkot. Company officials said by the end of the year, the firm would have a presence in all the cities in Punjab and Haryana.

Talking to Business Standard, Amitabh Nijhawan, vice-president (marketing), Chandigarh, said, "We have a strong network of about 20 branches in the northern region, including the ones in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, and Ambala. But the region has a huge number of investors who have not been able to participate in stock markets. Not only this, the presence of a large number of NRIs, commodity traders, landlords, and high net worth individuals gives an immense opportunity for broking and distribution of financial services. We have more than 30,000 clients in Punjab and Haryana alone and target opening branches in every city of Punjab and Haryana by the end of this year."

Highlighting the emerging opportunities in the region, he said although big business still came from A segment cities, small cities and towns were showing a lot of interest in equities. Investor awareness had increased multifold, he said, adding, investors knew what they wanted but only big brokerages were able to offer a bouquet of services under one roof.

He felt that the main drivers of the change from small brokers to big players were the rising technology investment in broking, which made the business unviable without scale; and the entry of banks offering all financial products under one roof "" from deposit products to insurance to mutual funds "" and, in future, even post-office schemes.

According to him, there is huge demand for big players in these cities as the customer looks for experience when investing in financial products.

"The company's key strengths are its diverse network, a bouquet of financial products and services, in-house technology team, strong sales and marketing teams with continuous reinvestment and training, cross selling opportunities, experienced promoters, product innovation and marketing strategies and strong banking relationships. We have a large NRI clientele in the region and we hope to tap this segment aggressively. Indiabulls NRI Trading Account provides access to comprehensive trading tools for independent NRI investors," added Nijhawan.

The company has emerged as a diversified financial services company that offers a wide range of financial products.