Hyderabad, Feb 20: In a bid to reduce communication costs and to offer speedy trading to customers, Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL) has proposed to set up its own communication network christened SHCILNet, connecting all its branches with Mumbai. Speaking to presspersons here on Monday, SHCIL managing director and CEO BV Goud said, "The corporation will be connected to all the 143 branches with 2 mbps leased lines, which will enhance the speed of on-line trading. We are already connected between Hyderabad and Mumbai, and in about a week Bangalore is getting connected with 2 mbps leased lines." The CEO has refused to indicate the investment required for the project. However, he said that it had to spend about Rs 20 crore for just leased lines, besides the equipment cost.The largest custodian and depository services provider, SHCIL has a host of FIs and mutual funds as its clients, besides 6 lakh individual investors.
The connectivity will be extended to all the four branches in Hyderabad and in about two months, it will be extended to other branches in AP, he said.
SHCIL has two branches in Vijayawada and one each in Rajamundry, Nellore, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Karnool. At all these centers the investors can make use of the system and buy and sell the stock through SHCIL. All depository account holders are eligible to place orders and SHCIL would execute the buy order. Furthermore, to encourage on-line trading, SHCIL plans to charge only 65 basis points to the registered customers, which includes brokerage, settlement cost etc. The STOCKdirect customers would be charged only 50 basis points, whereas prevailing charges by any broker would be somewhere between 100 to 150 basis points, he added. The decision to enter primary broking, Mr Goud says, is the logical extension of its popular products such as `sell-n-cash' and `cash-on-payout.' Sell-n-cash has been a successful product, which made a business of over Rs 300 crore in the last year, he added.
Coming to Arther Anderson's report on restructuring, Mr Goud said that the report is expected to be ready in about two weeks. The company would take a decision whether to apply for "limited banking license" or not. The consultants were asked to suggest the fate of the Infotech subsidiary - whether to hive-off or to identify a JV partner.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
