In a bid to tap broking opportunity, Aditya Birla Money, the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, is planning to scale up its presence in western and northern India. The company will open 25-30 branches in Dehi, Mumbai, Jalandhar, Gujarat and Indore by the end of current financial year.
?Currently, majority of our branches are in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. We want to expand our presence in those areas where huge broking community exist,? said Kanwar Vivek, managing director, Aditya Birla Money.
As part of the expansion plan, the company would ramp up its research acitivities besides deploying new software tools to boost the technology platform. ?The company plans to augment its research and product offerings to match the best in the industry. It will increase its footprint mainly through business partners,? he said.
The shareholders of the company on Monday approved the shift of the registered office from Chennai to Gujarat. Aditya Birla Money, formerly known as Appollo Sindhoori Capital Investments, was acquired by the Aditya Birla group in March 2009.
Vivek said the company is targeting to garner 15% of its revenues from sale of third-party products such as mutual funds and insurance. ?We have a huge customer base of 2 lakh and extensive branch network of 200 and we will leverage this to cross-sell these products,? he said.
The company?s income stood at Rs 110.46 crore last year, of which Rs 77 crore was accounted by equity broking income and Rs 12.5 crore by commodities. A major contributor to the company?s commodity business was its gold harvest scheme. Aditya Birla Commodities Broking, the company?s subsidiary, is a significant player in commodity trading, especially in gold trading.
The financial year 2009-10 was the first full year of operation since it was acquired by the Aditya Birla group. During the year, the company issued commercial papers for an aggregate amount of Rs 40 crore to meet the working capital requirement.