Reliance Money

Infinity, Reliance Money in partnership

2009-02-25T11:08:00.000+05:30

INFINITY Financial Solutions, one of Malaysia’s major offshore life brokers, has tied up with India's Reliance Money to offer financial services to non-resident Indians in Malaysia.

Through the partnership, Infinity will offer the entire line of Reliance Money’s life insurance services.

Reliance Money launches mobile trading portal

2009-02-24T10:46:00.002+05:30

MUMBAI: Aimed at increasing number of mobile savvy investors, Reliance Money, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, on Tuesday introduced a mobile trading portal in both equities and commodities across all mobile platforms supported by any technology. With this service, investors can trade in both equity exchanges NSE and BSE and in three commodity exchanges NCDEX, MCX and NMCEIL.

The service is launched in association with three technology partners Volantis Systems, Wipro Infotech and Religare Technova. While Volantis is the mobile platform provider for the service, Wipro develops and customizes the system on Volantis application. Religare Technova provides the support for integration of the Volantis application to the trading engine.

"Today, even a farmer in a village in Madhya Pradesh uses mobile to check commodity prices. Investors who are increasingly getting conversant with mobile usage, need a one window – 'on-go' service so that they can trade anywhere, even if they are traveling," said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and CEO of Reliance Money.

"Mobile trading is an additional facility provided to our existing customers. We do not expect any business volume for this."

The existing demat account holders of Reliance Money need to download the device from their respective telecom provider, for which they will be charged a nominal amount. There is no service charge levied by the Reliance Money for the said service, which includes features like market watch, buy/sell, full stock quotes, contract information, add script, delete script and reports.

However, with this initiative, the company will be tapping the approximately 347 million telecom user base in India, with its service.

Added Bandyopadhyay, "through this service, we want to create a whole new segment of investors who do not have access to the Internet."

India Post to enter gold retail trade

2009-02-23T11:22:00.000+05:30

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala circle of India Post is preparing to enter the gold retail trade as part of a business diversification initiative of the Department of Posts. Customers can now walk into a post office and buy pure 24 carat gold coins certified by the Swiss precious metal company Valcambi.

The scheme will be launched in selected post offices in the State by the end of the month. The initiative, being launched in association with Reliance Money Ltd (RML) and World Gold Council, will enable customers to buy gold coins of various denominations from post offices. Initially, the department plans to sell 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm gold coins packed in tamper-proof sealed covers.

“India Post has already launched this scheme in a few other circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, where it has been received well. We are planning to launch the scheme in Kerala circle before the end of February,” said Southern Region Headquarters director Govinda Rajan.

Mr. Rajan said in the first phase, gold coins would be sold through 18 post offices in the Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode regions and selected post offices in Kottayam and Alappuzha districts.

Senior officials of the Department of Posts had already been given training in handling the RML software for transactions. Every customer will be given an invoice or bill detailing the transaction. While the department will be earning an amount as commission, RML will also bear the service tax on the commission paid to India Post.

The stocking and sale of gold coins in the post offices will be under the direct supervision of the respective postmasters. The postmaster will be required to check the RML web site on a regular basis for the latest updates of gold rates and discounts. “We already have ample security features in our post offices for stocking valuables. However, under this scheme we will not be maintaining a huge stock of gold coins. The supply of gold coins in the various post offices will be replenished by RML according to the movement of the coins,” Mr. Rajan said.

The sale of gold coins through post offices is a continuation of India Post’s attempts to capitalise on its vast network for diverse business initiatives. The Kerala circle is already offering various Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) applications and Sabarimala temple prasadam as retail products to its customers. Apart from the reach of its network and the credibility of the department, customers buying gold coins from post offices can also bank on the special discounts offered during festival seasons.

Reliance Money goes ahead of Thomas Cook to become biggest currency exporter

2009-02-22T11:18:00.001+05:30

Reliance Money has overtaken Thomas Cook to become the largest aggregator and exporter in the currency business.

Reliance Money Express became the No. 1 wholesaler by reaching the target of exporting Rs 10,000 crore in this fiscal. “We buy currencies from retailers and export them to banks overseas. We have gone ahead of Thomas Cook, which was the biggest wholesaler till now,” Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO of Reliance Money, told The Telegraph.

The Bank of America and Emirates Post are the key importers of currencies. Reliance Money Express is the sole authorised agent of the Bank of America in Southeast Asia and is looking to tie up with other overseas banks.

The financial services and solution provider mainly exports currencies such as the swiss Franc from its two hubs in New Delhi and Cochin.

There are around five major currency aggregators in the country, with Thomas Cook and Weizmann being the key players.

Reliance Money has been able to command a leadership in the wholesale segment because of its competitive margins, Bandyopadhyay said.

“Margins or pricing have to be competitive for retailers to sell their currency to us,” he said. The Anil Ambani firm has made deep inroads into north and south India and is looking to enhance its presence in the western parts of the country, where Thomas Cook is big.

Reliance Money Express was formed after the Anil Ambani group acquired Travelmate Services Pvt Ltd — part of Kuoni Group — in 2006.

The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital.

Travelmate has been in the money transfer and money changing business since 1993. Subsequently, it also acquired a stake in Wall Street Finance, which consolidated its position in the foreign exchange and money remittance services business.

Reliance Money targeting 10 mln customers, more rural outlets

2009-02-13T11:33:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI, Feb 13, 2009 -- RELIANCE MONEY, India's leading financial products distribution firm, is aiming to cross the 10 million customers mark by the end of next fiscal, with over 30 per cent of new clients expected from semi-urban and rural areas. "We are targeting to cross the 10 million customers mark by the end of next fiscal. Out of this, 2-3 million are likely to come from the semi-urban and rural areas which have seen 100 per cent growth in the past year," Reliance Money CEO and director Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said.

* Further, the Anil Ambani group firm, which currently has over 10,000 outlets in over 5,000 locations across the country, is planning to double the number of outlets during the next fiscal.

* Reliance Money provides customers access to equities, equity options and commodities futures, wealth management, portfolio management services, mutual funds, IPOs, life and general insurance products, credit cards, money transfer, currency exchange and gold coins.

Reliance Money launches e-magazine “Money Advisor”

2009-02-02T12:35:00.001+05:30

Reliance Money, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has notified that it has launched an online magazine 'Money Advisor' that deals with mutual funds as a part of its investor education drive.

The company claims that 'Money Advisor' would be the first e-magazine of the country that deals in equity and debt funds.

The magazine aims to provide a synopsis on the mutual fund industry and include the latest trends in AUMs, overview and recommendations on equity and debt funds, performance snapshot, interest rate scenario and fixed income update, economic review apart from sector updates.

In addition, the magazine will also have views shared by various Fund Managers/ CIOs and an investor education series.

A company official stated that the company would mail 'Money Advisor' to all customers and distributors of Reliance Money.

It may be noted that currently, the company has over three million customers and more than 10,000 outlets across 5,165 cities and towns.

Reliance Money Plans to set up SME Stock Exchange

2009-01-29T10:30:00.000+05:30

Reliance Money, controlled by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and a Reliance Capital subsidiary, is exploring the option of setting up a stock exchange for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, the company is currently looking for partners to commence the venture within a year. It is also planning to enter the currency futures space through the SME stock exchange.

Reliance Money would have 26% stake in the proposed exchange. It has already initiated discussions with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for setting up this stock exchange. For this venture, the capital subsidiary of the ADAG will submit its application to the supervisory body very soon. The market regulator had earlier issued guidelines for SME exchanges, and had set a minimum net worth criteria of Rs 100 crore for entities willing to establish an exchange.

The Reliance Capital Company is also holding talks with Chellaram, the Nigeria-based non-resident Indian business group, for starting a stock exchange in the African country.

RIL Money to ink JV with S’pore warehousing firm

2009-01-27T12:04:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: Reliance Money, part of the Reliance ADA Group and large shareholder in National Multi Commodity Exchange, will soon widen its bouquet of services to manage goods stored in warehouses through a joint venture with Singapore-based warehousing company CWT Commodities, said a person involved in the venture.

The 50:50 joint venture will issue warehouse receipts that guarantee the quality and quantity of goods stored in its godowns, besides providing grading and sorting services. Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay could not be contacted for an official comment on the development.

A subsidiary of Singapore Stock Exchange-listed CWT Ltd, CWT Commodities is a large global player that offers a host of warehousing, collateral management, and logistics services. The new Indian JV firm, Reliance CWT Commodities, will have equal representation on the board from both Reliance ADAG and CWT Commodities. The head of the new company is yet to be appointed, said a person who has knowledge of the partnership.

CWT Commodities already has a small presence in India through its South East Asia operations. Its sister company CWT Globelink India has offices in Delhi and Mumbai. CWT’s current business in India will now be channeled through the new company.

ValueNotes.com inks pact with Reliance Money

2009-01-03T14:44:00.001+05:30

Financial portal ValueNotes.com has announced that it has clinched a pact with financial services firm Reliance Money.

Under the proposed agreement, ValueNotes.com will distribute Reliance Money’s subscription-based product - Live Market Analysis.

According to sources, the product is a chat messaging solution that will allow users to receive instant stock market calls/tips on a real time basis.

While commenting on the pact, Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Reliance Money CEO stated, “The tie-up will enable wider dissemination of our superior research content for beneficial financial market investment and spread of investment culture.”

The sources further disclosed that the said product is available for a monthly charge starting from as low as Rs 500. Reliance Money has nearly 10,000 outlets and 30 lakh customers nationwide.

Reliance Money Plans to Start Stock Exchange with FTIL

2008-12-30T15:03:00.000+05:30

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Money has set its eyes on giving competition to the two premier stock exchanges in the country, viz. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Reliance Money in collaboration with Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) plans to start its own stock exchange.

Reliance Money has the monetary backing of R-ADAG group; it is also a prominent player in commodity market after picking 10% stake in the National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE). The company wants to increase its holding to 26% in near future. Reliance Money’s spot exchange for agriculture commodities is also expected to early 2009. The FTIL group has interests in a currency futures exchange, commodity futures, power exchange and spot exchange for agricultural commodities and plans to set up an exchange for SMEs. It has also set up exchanges overseas.

There is tremendous scope for equity stock exchange in the country that has only 5% of its households investing in equities compared to the global average of around 50%. The equity derivative segment has the biggest scope, with the NSE enjoying a virtual monopoly in the segment with an average daily volume of around Rs 40,000 cr. The spot equity market average turnover doesn’t even match up to half of the NSE derivate average, with the BSE having a daily average volume of Rs 4,000 cr and the NSE having daily average volumes at Rs 10,000 crore in the spot segment.

Any aspirant in the stock exchange segment will however need approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). For FTIL, the equity exchange would be an extension of MCX-SX, its currency trading exchange, which was launched under a subsidiary. Reliance Money will have to set up a new company. Another issue could be equity holding, SEBI has recently decided to allow a single shareholder to hold a maximum of 15% in stock exchanges, but has not notified this yet. The aspirant companies’ track record will also be key factor in getting regulatory approval. If approved, this will be the first stock exchange after 1994, when the NSE was set up

Even though both sources have not confirmed the development, both are eyeing the possibility of an exchange for small and medium-sized (SME) enterprises, an area which is beleaguered with several failed attempts. Earlier ventures such as the Indo Next under the BSE trading platform, Over the Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI) and Inter-Connected Stock Exchange of India had failed to take off.

Worldwide SME exchanges are flourishing. LSE's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) was established in 1995 to nourish young entrepreneurial British firms. AIM is home to over 1,500 firms of which close to 250 are listings of firms based outside Britain. Obviously, one of the attractions for overseas firms is the laidback regulatory regime.

Reliance Money sets up shop in Malaysia

2008-12-27T15:12:00.000+05:30

RELIANCE Money, the largest broking house in India, has entered Malaysia's financial services market through a business collaboration with Infinity Financial Solutions, a local major financial products and services distribution company.

Reliance Money director and chief executive officer Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the company will be launching its portfolio management services (PMS) and other services in Malaysia soon.

"Reliance Money's PMS in Malaysia would be offered at a threshold level of as low as US$50,000 (RM174,000)," he said in a statement made available to Business Times.

Bandyopadhyay said this is the first such initiative by an Indian broking and distribution company to offer a bouquet of financial products and services to non-resident Indians (NRIs) in Malaysia.

"This is our first move to reach out to the large base of NRIs in Malaysia with our unique, cost-effective and efficient bouquet of products and services.

"Our presence in Malaysia will complement efforts to have a larger role in this region," he said, adding that the move is part of Reliance Money's plans to expand its global footprint.

Reliance Money provides customers with access to equities, equity and commodities futures, mutual funds, life and general insurance products and off-shore investment.

The company already operates in Asia, Europe and Africa and plans to expand its operations in over 15 countries by next year.

"We aim to generate 50 per cent of our revenues from overseas markets by 2012 and capture a bigger share of the record US$195 billion invested in India last year by overseas funds," Bandyopadhyay said.

Infinity Financial Solutions director Ben Bennett, meanwhile, said the new venture with Reliance Money will help the company augment its services portfolio and provide the large NRI population in Malaysia with a platform to transact in Indian financial instruments.

"This partnership would also help us utilise their (Reliance Money) expertise by providing enhanced investment tools to a large section of population who have not been able to use these services earlier," he said.

Reliance Money is part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. At present, it serves some three million customers and has a network of over 10,000 outlets and 20,000 touch points in more than 5,000 locations.

Anil Ambani launches online shopping portal to sell financial products

2008-12-22T15:39:00.001+05:30

To augment its existing distribution channels, ADAG has launched a new portal RelianceMoneyMall.Com to retail financial products under Reliance Money umbrella over the internet.

Apart from the Mutual Funds, insurance, IPO, research reports and Gold coins, the portal also sell gifts, home appliances and consumer durables. The list is expected to become more exhaustive over a period of time.

The initiative may prove to be successful as R-ADAG has lot of products under Reliance Capital banner and the portal may prove to be a low cost distribution model.

Anil Ambani launches online shopping portal to sell financial products - Digital Inspiration.

Reliance Money planning to rope in mandi bodies to hold stake in agriculture spot exchange

2008-12-22T15:13:00.001+05:30

Reliance Money is planning to rope in apex bodies of mandis in various states as shareholders for the proposed agriculture spot exchange it has announced with National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE).

“We have held discussions with Gujarat Niyantrit Bazaar Sangh, the apex body of more than 200 mandis in the state, and its counterpart in Tamil Nadu, and we may rope them in as shareholders,” Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

In August, Reliance Money and NMCE had announced the setting up of National Agriculture Produce Marketing Company of India (National APMC) that aims to provide the required infrastructure for electronic trading in agricultural products.

Bandyopadhyay said that a separate spot exchange for non-agricultural products would also be set up once National APMCL started functioning hopefully by June next year. The company had earlier indicated that National APMC would commence operations by December.

On shareholding details, the Reliance Money CEO said that those were being finalised.

While National APMC has approached more than a dozen states for permission to ensure that it is able to deliver the farm products traded electronically, so far it has received permission only from Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Analysts said that by tying up with state-level agencies for mandis, Reliance Money was also reducing chances of political opposition to electronic spot trading as these bodies were controlled by local politicians.

Commodities trading has been a politically sensitive issue and the government in the past has imposed ban on futures trading in commodities. The ban followed uproar by politicians, who said futures trading was speculative and blamed it for the increase in prices.

Presence in the commodity exchange business has emerged as a major focus area for Reliance Money, which is part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG). It has sought permission to acquire 26 per cent stake in NMCE, the national commodity futures exchange, but has so far received the go ahead to buy 10 per cent. In addition, it had bought a 15 per cent stake in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange to become the second largest shareholder in the commodity bourse. Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange plans to start trading in the first quarter of 2009 by offering dollar-denominated oil contract.

RBI’s FCCB buyback policy a welcome move: Reliance Money

2008-12-16T19:58:00.002+05:30

According to Reliance Money's report, the research firm believes that the RBI’s FCCB buyback policy is a welcome move but grossly inadequate.

Reliance Money's report:

Consequent to the recent RBI directive, FCCBs are now being allowed to be bought back by Indian Companies. It has now been decided to permit premature buyback of FCCBs. For the buyback of FCCBs out of rupee resources the RBI has fixed a minimum discount of 25% on the book value. The amount of the buyback is limited to USD 50 million of the redemption value per company wherein this window will be kept open till March 09. We believe RBI’s FCCB buyback policy is a welcome move but grossly inadequate.

Reliance Money debuts in Malaysia

2008-12-16T19:45:00.002+05:30

Reliance Money, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, announced its debut in Malaysia, by joining hands with Infinity Financial Solutions, one of Malaysia's major financial products and services distribution company, as part of plans to expand its global footprint.

Reliance ADAG Eyes 50% In UK Currency Co

2008-12-15T19:51:00.002+05:30

The deal will be routed through Wall Street Finance, a listed Indian firm that Reliance ADAG acquired recently.

There are still some buyers in the financial services sector. Anil Ambani led Reliance ADAG which has been striking international deals in the brokerage and commodities exchange business, is now looking at a bigger play on cross border money transfer activity. It is now close to acquiring 50% stake in a UK-based currency exchange and money transfer firm for an undisclosed amount. This will enable the Indian company to sell its financial products including mutual funds to the 1.4 million NRI population in the UK, says this report.

There are a number of large money transfer and currency exchange firms in the UK with Travelex (which was acquired by a consortium led by Apax Partners three years back). The target company is said to have more than 250 outlets. Some of the prospective names in the field who could be under the radar of Reliance ADAG include TTT Moneycorp and No1 Currency.

TTT Moneycorp is a retail, wholesale and commercial foreign exchange services firm in the UK owned by the Shlewet family trust and backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland while No1 Currency was formed in 1996 and is owned by its two founding partners David Hale and Mark McElney.

Rel Money ties up with DBS Vickers

2008-12-10T10:57:00.000+05:30

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Money on Wednesday said it has entered into an agreement with Singapore-based DBS Vickers Securities to facilitate trading in global commodity exchanges for Indian companies.

Under the agreement, the firm would provide trading facilities for different derivatives including agricultural products, metal and energy products, which are traded on various major exchanges worldwide, Reliance Money said in a statement.

It would also provide trading facility on OTC (over-the-counter) products in segments such as energy and freight, the company added.

"Our agreement with DBS Vickers will now open a safe, secure and cost effective transaction platform for our customers to trade in Global Commodities Exchanges," Reliance Money Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

"The size of the global commodities derivatives markets is estimated to be around USD 800 billion. We believe that Indian investors are looking at diversifying their portfolio and overseas trading service enables them to do so, Bandyopadhyay added.

DBS Vickers Securities is a member of the Singapore Exchange. It is the securities and derivatives arm of the DBS Group, a leading banking group of Southeast Asia.

Globally, exchange traded commodity futures is one of the largest market segments in the financial markets witnessing participation from the producers, users, traders alike.

Rel Money ties with up APMCs in Gujarat

2008-12-05T08:40:00.000+05:30

AHMEDABAD: Promoters of commodity exchange NMCE Reliance Money and Neptune Overseas have joined hands with farm produce marketing committees in Gujarat -- a major destination for the private sector-- to launch an electronic platform for physical trading in agriculture goods.

Reliance Money and Neptune Overseas have also decided to form a separate company National Agricultural Produce Market Company (NAPMC) in association with Gujarat Niyantrit Bazaar Sangh, an apex body of 209 agricultural produce marketing committees.

"As experience from futures market has been bitter, we collaborated with Reliance Money to open our own spot exchange," Sangh Chairman Narayan Lalludas Patel said, adding that the market for spot trading is opening up in the state so we decided to protect the interest of farmers.

Gujarat, a key producing state in several agriculture products, has emerged as a major destination for the private sector with as many as 12 players, including Jayant Agro, Gokul Refoils and Solvent, already receiving nod for direct procurement from farmers.

Sangh Honorary Secretary N I Chachatiya said, "We will soon file an application with the state government to obtain licence for starting a spot exchange." As soon as the nod is received, the spot exchange will be operationalised, he added.

He said the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) in the state can be a member of the spot exchange to offer the electronic platform in its premise.

Hit by falling volume, brokers hike their fees

2008-12-04T13:02:00.002+05:30

MUMBAI: In a stark contrast to the situation about a year ago, when they were busy trying to undercut each other on broking commissions, stock broking firms are now gradually increasing fees.

This may seem a bit surprising, considering that overall traded turnover on bourses has been shrinking since the start of this year. Industry watchers, however, say broking firms are finally coming to terms with the fact that it is not viable to charge very low levels of commission. Leading broking firms are said to have hiked their fees anywhere between 15 basis points (bps) and 50 bps.

“In good times, marginal costs were quite low. Today, brokers’ costs have gone up and revenues do not justify the kind of commissions that clients were being charged in the beginning of the year,” said a veteran BSE broker on condition of anonymity.

Some outfits have also introduced a standard ‘minimum’ brokerage charge, which would be applicable for even a single trade done by a client. Regular clients will also attract a minimum monthly brokerage at some of the firms.

“As trading volumes on bourses shrink, stock brokers expect a sharp fall in their income in the coming quarters. Such a move was waiting to happen. Unlike last year, when we saw broking firms vying with each other to cut costs, this year outfits have been forced to consider a hike across various sections,” said a person familiar with the development.

Some of the broking houses, which have reportedly hiked brokerage, include India Infoline, Indiabulls, Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss and Sharekhan. India Infoline is said to have raised brokerage charge on delivery-based transactions to 50 bps from 15 bps. For F&O trades, charges are said to have been hiked from 2 bps to 5 bps. Indiabulls, too, is said to have done something similar.

In an email reply to ET’s query, India Infoline said: “There has been no increase in brokerage rates across the board. What we have done is a part of normal rationalisation measures where customers who have significant trade volumes enjoy preferential brokerage rates and simultaneously those who do insignificant volumes, (barely active customers), typically have slightly higher brokerage rates. But this is only for a small group of customers with insignificant volumes. If you open an account with us today, then you will be charged the same brokerage as was being charged as before.”

On whether they have hiked delivery brokerage to 50 bps from 15 bps, an official said: “These are customers who would have had preferential brokerage rates earlier owing to higher committed volumes and since they haven’t generated significant volumes, their brokerage rates are being reverted to the standard five paisa for intra-day and 50 paisa for delivery trades. These are anyway the standard brokerage rates that we operate with.”

Indiabulls maintains brokerage charges are client-specific and as such there are no fixed slabs. “It’s a fluid system, whereby clients are charged according to the kind of business and volume they generate. As such, clients who do large volume of trades are charged less and vice versa,” said an Indiabulls official.

Reiterating this, officials at Motilal Oswal also said their charges were client specific. “2 bps/ 20 bps to (trading/delivery) to 5 bps to 50 bps, depending on the size of the client. For larger clients, there is a volume discount, which is an industry norm,” a senior official told ET.

Sharekhan still retains the standard slab. “The standard slab is trading -0.1% and delivery -0.5%. For customers with higher volumes, there are various slabs which they can subscribe to avail of lower brokerage,” a company spokesperson said.

India's NDTV, Rel Money Tie-up for a Television Programme

2008-12-04T08:45:00.003+05:30

NEW DELHI - Indian business news channel, NDTV Profit, on Thursday launched a series on discussions 'Our Money Forum', in association with financial services and products distribution company Reliance Money.

The television program named as 'Our Money Forum' aims to help the retail investors to take investment decisions, the channel said in a statement here.

The 10-episode series, which would have eminent financial experts on the panel would focus on educating the retail investors on the growing need and importance of financial planning.

The program would be conducted at various corporate houses across the country such as Patni Computers and Subex.

India Post centres to market small size gold coins

2008-11-26T14:51:00.000+05:30

Hyderabad, Nov. 26 The Department of Posts in partnership with Reliance Money Ltd., (an ADAG Group company) today announced their move to sell gold coins of 24-carat in tamper proof packs of 0.5, 1, 5 and 8 gms weight in select India Post outlets.

RML in tie-up with Swiss Gold will supply gold coins and the network of India Posts centres will provide an ideal platform to market them.

The Chief Postmaster General, Andhra Pradesh Circle, Ms. Yashodhara Menon, said “people in India do not need any excuse to buy gold, whose purchase is always seen as auspicious. This tie up will help people who come to India Post an option to buy gold in small coins.”

Addressing a press conference, she said India Posts has tied up with Reliance Money and rolled out sale of gold coins in several States in the country and has announced similar tie up today in three more States.

India Posts had earlier facilitated marketing of mutual fund products of Reliance Energy Resources and sees this relationship blossoming into other businesses, which will be mutually beneficial, while adding to revenues, she said.

ADAG enters online retail business

2008-11-23T10:59:00.000+05:30

Seeking to grab the top market position within a year in the Rs 20,000-crore market, Anil Ambani group announced its foray into the online retail business where it would sell everything that could be sold over the Internet.Under the banner of the group's financial products distribution unit Reliance Money, the new venture would make available a wide variety of products for e-shopping, ranging from financial products like IPOs, mutual funds, insurance policies and gold coins to items like apparel, accessories, books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, home appliances and even flowers.

Announcing the launch, Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay told PTI over the phone from Mumbai that the e-commerce web portal-- RelianceMoneyMall.Com-- would be like a big shopping mall in electronic format where consumers would be able to buy whatever that can be sold online.

Asserting that the company was targetting at least 20 per cent market share for the new venture, Bandyopadhyay said that the aim is to grab the top position in less than a year."There are over 60 million Internet users in the country and this number would double in about two and a half years, all of whom we are looking to tap as our target market.Besides, there are already an estimated 10.8 million people shopping online," Bandyopadhyay said.

"We are looking at a market share of at least 20 per cent in this market with business worth over Rs 20,000 crore a year," he added.The portal will also be a host of subscription-based financial products such as technical charts, stock and commodity alert SMS packs, newsletters and research reports.

Rel Money eyes new Nigerian exchange

2008-11-07T11:00:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Reliance Money, the brokerage company of Reliance Capital, is in advanced stages of negotiations to pick up a majority stake in an upcoming commodity and currency trading exchange in Nigeria. This comes close on the heels of the R-ADAG firm picking up a 15% equity stake in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange(HKMEx).

The proposed Nigerian exchange is expected to start trading by the second quarter of 2009. It would begin with commodity and currency contracts and may eventually evolve as a full-fledged trading exchange offering equity trading as well.

While Reliance Money would hold the majority stake, local business groups would be brought in as minority partners in the venture. Unlike HKMEx, where the local government has a stake, the Nigerian exchange would be a private enterprise.

When contacted by ET, Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said: “We are looking at various growth opportunities abroad. We will announce them as and when we finalise something.” There is already a stock exchange in Lagos.

The deal would mean an expansion of operations in Nigeria for Reliance Money. Earlier this year, the company had entered into a tie-up with Lagos-based industrial group — the Chellarams, for distribution of financial products and services.

The transaction is part of the global expansion strategy of Reliance Money, which is also in the process of starting full-fledged financial services operations through a JV in Saudi Arabia and has plans to expand its business in over 15 countries spread across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia by March 2009.

Rajnikant Patel joins Reliance Money

2008-11-06T11:10:00.002+05:30

MUMBAI: Rajnikant Patel has joined Reliance Money as president (exchange business). The announcement was made by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and CEO, Reliance Money, today.

Bandyopadhyay said: "We are very pleased with the induction of Mr. Patel in Reliance Money. We are sure that with his extensive experience of over 28 years in the financial market arena, Mr. Patel will play a critical role in our foray into the exchange space covering commodities and currencies. We are looking at both domestic and international opportunities."

Prior to joining Reliance Money, Patel was the managing director & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange, where he was responsible for the corporatisation and demutualisation of BSE making it a billion dollar institution.

Patel said: "I am very happy to be associated with Reliance Money, particularly for the vision, the scale and the speed of implementation. I believe there is a huge scope for an innovative, professional and committed approach in commodities, currency futures and related exchange space. I am very excited at the future possibility of value creation for all stakeholders in the financial system."

Reliance Money, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is a comprehensive financial services firm providing customers with access to equity, equity and commodity derivatives, portfolio management services, wealth management Services, mutual funds, IPOs and life and general insurance.

Postal Department receives great response

2008-10-31T11:15:00.002+05:30

NEW DELHI: Within a fortnight of the launch of the unique service to sell internationally certified gold coins through its vast network of post offices, the Department of Posts (DoP) has received overwhelming response from people.

“Thanks to the ongoing festive season, we have been able to do brisk business. So far, over 20 kgs of gold worth over Rs.2.6 crore has been sold through 100-odd post offices spread in five states. The sale of gold coins was particularly good on the Dhanteras day when people buy gold. We have also offered a five per cent discount this festive season,” informed a senior DoP official.

Initially, the DoP has started this service in five states -- Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Punjab -- on pilot basis, and soon the service would be made available across India.

India Post has launched this venture in association with World Gold Council and Reliance Money. World Gold Council is helping in marketing the Swiss Medallions supplied by Reliance Money.

The 24-karat gold coins, packed in a sealed cover with the certification from renowned Valcambi in Switzerland, are available in weights of 0.5 gram, 1 gram, 5 grams and 8 grams.

“The sale of 5 gms coins has been the maximum, with Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra leading the list. In Punjab, where the service was launched a few days before Diwali, the response has also been good. After reviewing the sales figure of the festive season, the sale of gold coins will be extended to other states as well, starting from mini-metros and towns,” the official added.

Competitively priced

Stating that the prices of these gold coins are competitively priced based on the prevailing market prices, the official said: “Gold coins available through our post offices carry internationally recognised certification and has low risk of duplication. Our post offices that are known for its trust and reliability will serve as an ideal location for the people to buy quality gold coins.”

Wall Street Fin inducts Sudip on Board

2008-10-30T10:22:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI: Wall Street Finance today announced its un-audited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. The performance highlights are:

* Operational Review for the Quarter ended September 30, 2008

* Total income of Rs. 929.45 lakhs, against Rs. 713.78 lakhs in the corresponding period, an increase of 30.22 per cent

* Net profit of Rs. 24.67 lakhs, against Rs. 9.73 lakhs in the corresponding period, an increase of 153.55 per cent

The Company also inducted Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director & CEO, Reliance Money,Mr. S. P. Talwar, Retired Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India and Mr. Rajnikant Patel,Ex-Executive Director & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange on its Board.

“We are very pleased with this strategic tie-up with Reliance Money Express. We strongly believe that this tie-up will help us build on synergies and propel our recently launched Investment Services further,” said Mr. Areef Patel, Vice Chairman, Wall Street Finance Ltd.

"I am pleased to join the Wall Street Finance Board. We are confident that this association will capitalise on the strength of both Reliance Money Express and Wall Street Finance, paving the way for a new chapter in the financial services sector in the country,” said Mr. Bandyopadhyay, newly inducted Director of Wall Street Finance.

Wall Street Finance Ltd. (WSFL) was set-up in 1986 as a Public Limited Company and is today a leader in Foreign Exchange and Money Remittance services in the country. The Company has a market capitalisation of approximately Rs. 40 crore and a 3-year dividend track record. It is the only deposit-taking NBFC (D) that also has an Authorised Dealer-II licence. This prestigious licence has been issued to the Company based on its 15-year-old track record in the field of foreign exchange as well as strict compliance policies adopted by the Company. This has now opened a large market for the Company, in the field of foreign exchange, which was earlier restricted to banks. The Company is now able to offer Outward Remittance Services for a wide range of activities. To capitalise on the huge opportunity in both Inward and Outward Remittance, WSFL is expanding its network by opening more branches across the country.

The Company is one of the principal agents of Western Union Money Transfer and operates over 3500 locations for Money Transfer. It has now got into Investment Services as a distributor of various Wealth Management Products of Reliance ADAG.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO of Reliance Money, on Wall Street Finance Board

2008-10-30T10:14:00.001+05:30

Wall Street Finance has inducted Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director and CEO of Reliance Money, S P Talwar, Retired Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Rajnikant Patel, Ex-Executive Director and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange on its board as directors.

Reliance Money Express (RME), an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, has gained control of Wall Street Finance last week.

Wall Street Finance on also reported over two-fold jump in net profit at Rs 24.67 lakh for the quarter ended September 30. The company had a net profit of Rs 9.73 lakhs in the same period a year ago, the foreign exchange and money remittance services provider said in a statement.

“We are very pleased with this strategic tie-up with Reliance Money Express. We strongly believe that this tie-up will help us build on synergies and propel our recently launched Investment Services further,” Wall Street Finance Vice-Chairman, Areef Patel said.

Bandyopadhyay, the newly inducted Director of Wall Street Finance said, “I am pleased to join the Wall Street Finance Board. We are confident that this association will capitalise on the strength of both Reliance Money Express and Wall Street Finance, paving the way for a new chapter in the financial services sector in the country”.

ADAG acquires stake in Forex company 'Wall Street Finance'

2008-10-28T10:55:00.000+05:30

India-based Reliance ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) is entering foreign exchange currency business by acquiring 33.5% stake in Wall Street Finance, part of the House of Patels.

The House of Patels owns about 65% stake in the publicly held Wall Street Finance. In a similar deal, in 2005, House of Patels had sold 60% stake in Wall Street Exchange (WSE) to Emirates Post (Empost). Discussions are also on with Reliance for USA and Canada markets. ADAG finalized the Wall Street Finance deal very fast based on the upward trend in the current exchange market. Empost was given first choice for taking up stake in Wall Street Finance.

House of Patels in also now interested in completely selling off its remaining stake in the company and currently is in discussion with its majority stakeholder Empost. Wall Street Exchange Centre is operating in UAE since 1982.

Earlier through this deal Emirates Post has further strengthened its presence in financial services. Wall Street Exchange Centre, UAE, is a dynamic player in the Exchange and Remittance Business. The company also shares a correspondent relationship with over 80 countries worldwide and has over 1,000 agent locations in India alone, promoting its services.

Mr. Asgar Patel, Chairman and founder of the House of Patels, said:

'We at the House of Patels are proud to have developed such a powerful brand in the money exchange business both in UAE and India and also worldwide through our large network. I am sure the brand will have a new flavour in the days to come based on the wealth of experience Reliance Money has gathered over the years. We are confident that we can create another great success story as we have done it in UAE with Wall Street Exchange and Emirates Post.'

Wall Street Finance, set up in 1986, is an authorised dealer Forex-II (which means they can offer foreign remittance as well as money changing services). It is one of the principal agents of Western Union Money Transfer and operates over 3,500 locations for money transfer. Wall Street Finance is registered with Reserve Bank of India as a Non-Banking Finance Company and has over 38 branches spread across India.

Wall Street Exchange Centre has been one of the market leaders in money exchange and bank note activities. Its activities include buying and selling of more than 100 types of currencies. It has a strong presence in the foreign currency wholesale market and is considered as the exchange company for other exchange houses, banks and business houses. It is also a leader in the Travelers Cheques product category. Wall Street Exchange Centre has a separate Wholesale Bank Note Department, complemented by a full-fledged department linked to a Reuters dealing system.

Reliance Money Express was formed after Reliance acquired Travelmate Services, a part of Kuoni Group, in November 2006. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital. The company has been in the money transfer services (MTS) and full-fledged money changing (FFMC) business in the country since 1993.

Mr. Patel built his empire with Patel roadways, the logistics arm of the company and is rated as one of India's best and one of the largest transport companies with over 350 branches and 8000 people. House of Patels is a multi million-dollar conglomerate with interest in diversified fields including Transportation, Logistics, Finance, Constructions, Courier and Real Estate Developments.

India Post ties up with Reliance Money to sell gold coins at post office

2008-10-25T11:05:00.001+05:30

India Post has tied up with Reliance Money and World Gold Council to sell gold coins through its post office network across the country.

The pilot project has been launched on Wednesday and it will make gold coins available across 100 post offices in four states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. However going forward it would be available for sale at all the 155,000 post offices across the country.

“We have initiated the process to commercialise the post offices and increase their visibility,” said A Raja, Union Minister of IT and Telecom. Reliance Money will act as the vendor to provide certified coins that are 99.99 per cent pure in four denominations of 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm.

“This should go up as we have tied with India Post which is the most trusted organisation and is biggest retail network with 1,55,000 post offices,” said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, chief executive officer, Reliance Money. “We will train the post office employees and we are confident of the delivery channel.”

“In the long term, considering the demand supply economics, gold is only expected to go up, as there are no new gold mines coming up and so the supply remains constrained,” said a gold expert who did not wish to be named.

ADAG a step away from full banking

2008-10-23T16:46:00.001+05:30

Reliance Money Express buys big chunk of Wall Street Finance to benefit from a prized deposit-taking-NBFC licence and also the more precious Authorised Dealer-II, which is a licence for outward remittances’ business. De facto, Reliance Money will become a bank without a chequebook

MUMBAI: Reliance Money Express (RME), an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, has gained control of Wall Street Finance, a Bombay Stock Exchange-listed company in the forex remittance business by becoming its largest shareholder.

Reliance Money is all set to become a co-promoter of Wall Street Finance through a merger amalgamation scheme with Wall Street Constructions, a promoter group company, which owns 33.54% stake in Wall Street Finance.

By becoming the largest shareholder of Wall Street Finance, which has a market capitalisation of Rs 45 crore and a 3-year dividend track record, Reliance Money Express has given parent Reliance Capital two crucial cogs that were missing from its financial conglomerate superstructure —- an RBI licence to function as a deposit-taking NBFC (D) and an Authorised Dealer-II licence, which is an outward remittance licence, granted to a handful of limited entities.

These two, very very precious licences make Reliance Money literally a bank sans a cheque book. There are only a handful entities in India with an AD-II licence.

The Bombay High Court has given the consent and approval, subject to certain formalities, according to the court’s website.

The court approval will pave way for Reliance ADAG representatives to get on the Wall Street Finance board, which is slated to meet later this month.

In a missive to the BSE, Wall Street Finance said on Wednesday that it will discuss the appointment of additional directors and revamping and /or restructuring the board of directors during the board meeting on October 30.

With the proposed revamp, ADAG is also likely to take active part in the management of the company.

Reliance Money enters into forex remittance business with controlling stake in Wall Street Finance

2008-10-23T11:10:00.000+05:30

Reliance Money Express (RME), an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, has gained control of Wall Street Finance, a Bombay Stock Exchange-listed company in the forex remittance business by becoming its largest shareholder.

Reliance Money is all set to become a co-promoter of Wall Street Finance through a merger amalgamation scheme with Wall Street Constructions, a promoter group company, which owns 33.54% stake in Wall Street Finance.

By becoming the largest shareholder of Wall Street Finance, which has a market capitalisation of Rs 45 crore and a 3-year dividend track record, Reliance Money Express has given parent Reliance Capital two crucial cogs that were missing from its financial conglomerate superstructure —- an RBI licence to function as a deposit-taking NBFC (D) and an Authorised Dealer-II licence, which is an outward remittance licence, granted to a handful of limited entities.

ADAG eyes AIG’s Asian life insurance business

2008-10-20T16:29:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is looking to buy out the Asian insurance business of AIG. If it goes through, the deal — which would exclude AIG’s Indian businesses — would make Reliance South-East Asia’s largest life insurer. It could well be the second-largest overseas buyout by an Indian firm. ADAG is likely to be one of several bidders looking to buy these AIG businesses.

Sources told ET that the asking price for American International Assurance Company (AIA), AIG’s wholly-owned arm, has been pegged at around $10 billion. Sources said Citibank, acting on behalf of AIA, has approached ADAG to buy out AIA. AIA is AIG’s flagship life insurance company for South-East Asia and is the largest life insurer in the region with businesses across South East Asia.

Last month, the US nationalised AIG which was on the brink of collapse with an $85-billion loan and restructured its top management. This was followed by another $38 billion last week. Now, the insurance giant is 80%-owned by the US government.

Last year, Tata Steel had acquired Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus for $12 billion and Hindalco had acquired Novelis for around $7 billion. In comparison, Indian financial services firms have been rather conservative in their international acquisitions.

In most geographies, AIG operates as AIA while in some markets like Australia and New Zealand, it functions as AIG.

When contacted, the R-ADAG spokesperson declined to comment. Sources, however, told ET that the group is interested in the deal, given AIA’s dominance in the region.
The Indian group has been spreading its financial services businesses overseas through Reliance Money, the retail brokerage and distribution arm of Reliance Capital. The company recently acquired 15% stake in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, which came on the back of a partnership with local firm Goldride Securities, for distributing financial products and services.

Reliance Money, which is looking to generate half of its revenue from abroad by 2013, is actively expanding operations in the Middle East.

Top group executives are currently evaluating options and likely to take a decision soon. “Chances of a deal are 50:50. R-ADAG could be looking at a modest valuation, in the $5-6 billion range. The deal is still at a nascent stage, and there’s no certainty that it will go through,” said a source.

R-ADAG already has a life insurance venture in India — Reliance Life Insurance — which is an associate company of Reliance Capital, the flagship financial services firm of the group, which has interests in asset management, stock broking, insurance, proprietary investments, private equity and other activities in financial services.

In India, AIG has a 24:76 life insurance joint venture with the Tatas. This business is unlikely to be part of the proposed deal with Reliance-ADAG, as the Tatas may have a right of first refusal in any sale by AIG.

AIG, which had assets in excess of $1 trillion in 2007, has been looking to sell parts of its businesses and assets and focus on the core general insurance business. AIG’s move to sell AIA is at variance with its earlier statement to retain a continuing ownership interest in its foreign life insurance operations.

Life insurance and retirement services business is the largest revenue generator for AIG. Out of the total revenues of $110 billion in 2007, life insurance generated $53.6 billion and general insurance $51.7 billion. Asset management and other financial services are comparatively smaller business areas of AIG globally.

In 2007, AIG generated $92.7 billion worth of aggregate business, which includes premium, deposits and other considerations from life insurance and retirement services businesses. Out of this, $67.5 billion came from operations outside the US. Besides AIA, this also represents businesses from other units of AIG spreading across Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Reliance Money to buy 15% in HKMEx

2008-10-14T14:05:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Reliance Money, the retail brokerage arm of Reliance Capital, is buying15% stake in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx). This would be the first time an Indian firm is buying stake in an overseas exchange. The deal comes at a time when the global financial markets are in a state of flux.

ET had first reported that Reliance Money was close to picking up a substantial minority stake in HKMEx, in its edition dated September 6. As reported earlier, HKMEx was keen to sell up to 26% stake to Reliance Money.

Though the deal amount could not be ascertained, sources say the transaction is being struck at around $15 million, which would value the exchange at $100 million.

Reliance Money had recently received government nod to pick up 10% in Ahmedabad-based National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (NMCE). Reliance Money has stated that it may acquire up to 26% in NMCE.

Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay confirmed the firm is buying 15% stake in HKMEx. “There is a tremendous opportunity in developing HKMEx as a regional commodity exchange as there is no strong regional commodity bourse in Asia. Moreover, with our exposure in NMCE we would look at building synergies between the two, he said.”

The deal, will make Reliance Money the second-largest shareholder in the commodity exchange and also entitle the firm a board seat in HKMEx.

Apna Loan ties-up with Reliance Money

2008-10-07T12:42:00.003+05:30

Mumbai: Apnaloan (www.apnaloan.com), the pioneer and largest market place for loans and credit cards has tied up with Reliance Money, the largest broking and distribution house in India, to provide information about personal finance on their website.

As a part of the tie-up, content on the Easy Loan, EMI Calculators and FAQ sections on the Reliance Money website will be provided and powered exclusively by Apnaloan.com. Apnaloan has enlightened over 1.0 million consumers about Personal Loans, Home Loans, Car Loans, Credit Cards and Education Loans through its well-researched and vast data bank.

“Our tie-up with a leader such as Reliance Money is a step further in our attempt to provide consumers with effective and accurate information about various personal finance products. Our team of experts at Apnaloan provides our consumers with a hassle free loan process” said Mr. Harsh Roongta, CEO of Apnaloan.com.

Speaking on new alliances, Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director & CEO, Reliance Money said, “Reliance Money has always been at the forefront of adding value to its customers. Our tie-up with Apnaloan.com is another step in enhancing the bouquet of services available to our consumers on our website.

Reliance Money gets Merchant Banking License

2008-09-30T12:28:00.001+05:30

New Delhi: Reliance Money, a leading broking and distribution house, today said it has obtained Category I Merchant Banking License from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and aims to clinch about 50 fund-raising deals by the end of the current fiscal. ''This new license allows Reliance Money to provide a wide range of investment banking services such as Issue Management, Underwriting, Private Equity Advisory, Syndication and Corporate Finance services in the country,'' Reliance Money Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

While the main focus of the industry has been on large caps, the firm, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, sees a huge opportunity in serving the small and mid-sized segment, currently being under-serviced, he added.

The company plans to leverage its existing customer base of more than 2.5 million and distribution network of 10,000 outlets and 20,000 touchpoints across 5,165 cities and towns to effectively distribute the IPOs it handles.

Reliance Money gets nod to acquire 10 pc stake in NMCE

2008-09-30T12:16:00.002+05:30

MUMBAI: Financial services firm Reliance Money has obtained approval from Ministry of Consumer Affairs to acquire a 10 per cent stake in the Nati onal Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (NMCE) Board.

"We are pleased with this development, as it marks our foray into the national commodity exchange space that is expected to cross an annual turnover of Rs 74 lakh-crore (volume) by next year," Reliance Money Director & CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said in a statement here today.

Reliance Money had proposed to acquire a total of up to 26 per cent stake in NMCE in two phases. NMCE had accordingly applied for necessary approvals from the regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC), which in turn, recommended the acquisition to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

The Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADAG is the first large business group to get into the commodity exchange space in India.

"We believe that this strategic tie-up between Reliance Money and NMCE will help us utilise the vast growth potential of commodity trading business in India to its optimum," he said.

"We are also set to leverage our wide distribution network of 10,000-plus outlets across 5,165 cities and towns to add value to NMCE," Bandyopadhyay, who has been inducted on the NMCE Board as an Additional Director, said.

As global giants go bust, Reliance Money enters investment banking

2008-09-29T11:54:00.001+05:30

R-Cap arm to target smaller, medium-sized companies; eyes 50 fund-raising deals within first six months

Mumbai: Reliance Money, or R-Money, the equity brokerage arm of Reliance Capital Ltd, part of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-Adag) of companies, is entering the investment banking business at a time when several global investment banks have collapsed, merged with other companies, or turned into banks.

R-Money is eyeing at least 50 fund-raising deals within the first six months of operation. The company received required regulatory clearances to enter the business four days back and plans to focus on smaller and mid-size companies, a segment it says is hugely under-serviced.

“There are a lot of smaller and medium-size companies, emerging companies, which do not get adequate attention from the bigger merchant banks. We will focus on this segment,” said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and chief executive, R-Money. He added that his company aims to “spot companies with the IPO (initial public offering) potential” and work with them until they are ready to float an issue in the market.

Bandyopadhyay said R-Money would help companies raise money by tapping private equity firms if they were not ready to sell shares to the public. He admitted that companies were nervous about raising money from the public in the wake of the global credit crunch that has roiled markets, but said R-Money had the answer to that.
“If we are confident about the prospects of a company, we will underwrite 100% of its IPO. That’s the way to go about issues in such markets.”

R-Money’s entry into investment banking comes at a time when global markets are going through a credit crunch that started a little more than a year ago with problems in the mortgages business in the US and which has, in a climax that has continued over the past few weeks, resulted in the collapse of several US and European finance firms.

It also comes in a bad year for investment banking. According to a 14 September Mint report, an analysis of data by Nexgen Capitals Ltd, the investment banking arm of New Delhi-based outfit SMC Global Securities Ltd, shows merchant banking fees charged for public issue transactions have dipped 56.35% on an annualized basis: from Rs811 crore in 2007 to Rs236 crore year to date. The data is based on the Rs59,807 crore raised in 2007 compared with Rs37,743 crore, year to date, a 16% drop on an annualized basis.

An analyst who tracks the company for a Mumbai brokerage and who did not want to be identified said the move was a “logical step” for R-Money because it completes its “bouquet” of financial services. The analyst added that while a Tata group company or a Aditya Birla group company might not “come to them”, because they compete at some level with R-Money’s affiliates in R-Adag, there were “hundreds” who would.

R-Adag has interests in businesses such as power, finance, telecommunications and entertainment. “In cases of mergers and acquisitions, there may be some hesitation from competing companies, but for IPOs and other fund-raising cases, there will be no such issue,” said Bandyopadhyay. He added that the company would be involved with the fund-raising activities of its affiliates but wouldn’t be the sole investment banker for them.

Bandyopadhyay said he had already hired 25 people for the business and intends to hire 75 more.
He added that R-Money had been looking to work with companies in the infrastructure, telecommunications, media, power and energy sector and will likely manage an “IPO for a large construction conglomerate” and a global depository receipts issue for a mid-sized information technology company.

R-Money has a so-called category 1 investment banking licence from India’s capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi. There are around 100 companies that have this licence which allows an investment bank to help domestic companies through all forms of fund-raising in the Indian as well as international markets, manage buybacks of equity and underwrite issues.

Only 10-15 of these firms, however, are active, said Bandyopadhyay.

R-Money plans to leverage its customer base of more than three million and more than 20,000 distribution centres to effectively distribute the IPOs it handles.

“We are the biggest brokerage house in the country and that will be a strength when we are handling an IPO,” said Bandyopadhyay.

Analysts, however, continue to be concerned about the prospects for some of Reliance Capital’s businesses. In a 22 September note, Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd’s analysts Manish Karwa, Ajinkya Dhavale and Alpesh Mehta wrote that they expect R-Money to make profit of Rs90 crore in the current fiscal and Rs130 crore in the next fiscal.
“While the execution capabilities of the management are commendable, growth uncertainty has increased in current environment across businesses. We have reduced our fair valuation for general insurance, broking and consumer finance businesses due to bleak outlook on either business growth and/or profit growth,” they added, downgrading Reliance Capital to “neutral” with a revised target price of Rs1,340 a share.

On Monday, shares of Reliance Capital closed down 6.99% at Rs1090.80 each on the Bombay Stock Exchange on a day the exchange’s benchmark Sensex index fell 3.9% to 12,595.75 points.

Reliance ADAG Acquires Stake In Forex Company Wall Street Finance

2008-09-13T03:49:00.000+05:30

EXCLUSIVE: RELIANCE MONEY EXPRESS WILL GET INTO FULL-FLEDGED FOREIGN CURRENCY BUSINESS THROUGH THIS ACQUISITION.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is entering foreign exchange currency business. The group's forex arm Reliance Money Express has acquired a significant stake in Wall Street Finance Ltd, the forex business owned by the Patels of the Patel Roadways.

Reliance Money, a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, has acquired the stake by buying out the privately held Wall Street Contructions, a promoter entity which owns about 33.5 per cent stake in Wall Street Finance. The Patels own about 65 per cent stake in the publicly held Wall Street Finance. Neither Reliance Money nor Patels of Wall Street Finance could be reached for comment.

In fact, in May, there was an _interse_ transfer between the promoters on BSE wherein 38.37 lakh shares constituting 33.5% of the equity were sold by AS Patel (promoter) to Wall Street Construction Ltd.

The Bombay High Court is expected to approve the merger on September 26, after the completion of the merger, Wall Street Constructions will cease to exist and Reliance Money Express will become the single largest shareholder of Wall Street Finance with 33.5 per cent stake. The Patels will hold the remaining promoter equity which is about 32%.

Since May this year the share price of Wall Street Finance has more than doubled, from Rs 35 in May to reaching a high of Rs 81 this month. At the close of the markets
today, the shares were trading at Rs 76, up by 6.5% from the previous close. The Mumbai-based firm has a market capitalisation of only close to Rs 89 crore ($19.6 million). The company reported net profit of Rs 1.3 crore over a topline of Rs 30 crore in FY08.

Reliance Money Express was formed after Reliance acquired Travelmate Services, a part of Kuoni Group, in November 2006. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital. The company has been in the money transfer services (MTS) and full-fledged money changing (FFMC) business in the country since 1993.

Wall Street Finance, set up in 1986, is an authorised dealer Forex-II (which means they can offer foreign remittance as well as money changing services). It is one of the principal agents of Western Union Money Transfer and operates over 3,500 locations for money transfer. The company is registered with RBI as a Non-Banking Finance Company and has over 38 branches spread across India. Wall Street Finance also caters to people going on Haj pilgrimage.

(The image of the court filing was published in Free Press Journal on September 10)

ADAG ramps up money transfer biz

2008-09-12T15:21:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI: In an effort to scale up its presence in money transfer business, the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has amalgamated Wall Street Construction, the parent company of Wall Street Finance, with Reliance Money Express, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital.

Wall Street Finance is a financial services company with foreign exchange and money remittance as its core activities. The company’s range of services include buying and selling foreign currencies and traveller’s cheques. Wall Street Construction holds a 33.55% stake in Wall Street Finance and after the amalgamation, Reliance Money Express will have a controlling stake in Wall Street Finance.

The deal is expected to strengthen the ADAG’s presence in money changing services and full-fledged money transfer business. “Reliance Money Express has been doing money transfer business for a long time as a principal agent of Western Union with all regulatory approvals. We are one of the leading players in this space and after the deal, ADAG will continue to have majority stake in the merged entity,” said Sudip Banyopadhyay, Director & CEO, Reliance Money.

The amalgamation petition was admitted in the Bombay High Court on 22 August and the matter is due for hearing on 26 September according to a public notice in a leading financial daily. When asked about the financial details of the deal, Banyopadhyay was tight-lipped. “Due to a confidentiality clause, the deal consideration cannot be disclosed at this stage. But it is insignificant in the context of the Reliance ADA Group,” he added. The promoters of Wall Street Finance could not be reached for comment.

In November 2006, Reliance Capital had acquired Travelmate Services, a part of Kuoni Group, and rechristened it to Reliance Money Express. After unveiling the new subsidiary of Reliance Capital, the management had expressed the plans of forging alliances with various corporate houses and travel firms to take on the established players in this field.

Reliance Capital has a market capitalisation of over Rs 2,90,000 crore and the company sees a value in the business with India being the largest recipient of global remittance. “India is the largest recipient of global remittance of around $ 27 billion which is more than 10 percent of the total global remittance inflow of $ 240 billion. This is continuously rising due to labour migration and increasing wages,” Banyopadhyay had told the media after unveiling Reliance Money Express.

OptionsXpress reaches deal with Indian firm

2008-09-11T05:33:00.000+05:30

| Text size:

OPTIONSXPRESS REACHES DEAL WITH INDIAN FIRM

By James P. Miller |Tribune staff reporter7:45 AM CDT, September 10, 2008

OptionsXpress Holdings Inc., the Chicago-based online brokerage, said Wednesday that it reached agreement on an alliance with India's leading brokerage, under which the Indian firm -- Reliance Money Ltd. -- will refer its customers exclusively to optionsXpress for trading in U.S. financial products.

The Chicago broker, which specializes in equity options and futures trading, said Reliance is a unit of India's Ani Dhirubhai Ambani Group conglomerate. The accord also allows optionsXpress to refer customers to Reliance for trading in Indian markets.

As Indian investors seek to diversify their portfolios, the link with optionsXpress "will create a safe, secure and cost effective transaction platform for our customers to trade in the U.S. markets," said Reliance Money Chief Executive Officer Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

The accord, said an optionsXpress official, will allow the Chicago company "to participate and benefit in the growth potential of India."E-mail

Reliance Money partners with US brokerage firm

2008-09-09T04:28:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Broking and distribution house Reliance Money said on Monday that it has partnered with the US-based optionsXpress Holdings Inc, a web-based trading company, to gain access, custody and execution in US markets for its customers.

Reliance Money, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, through this agreement will enable investors to trade in all US delivery based equities, initial public offerings (IPOs), mutual funds, bonds and options. “Our tie-up with optionsXpress will now open a safe, secure and cost-effective transaction platform for our customers to trade in the US markets,” Reliance Money chief executive officer Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

The US equity markets are mostly liquid and allow investors to spread country and sectoral risk more effectively.
Customers can also invest in sectors like bio-technology, semi-conductors and Internet companies that are under-represented here, Bandyopadhyay said. optionsXpress Holdings is a US-based company that provides securities brokerage products and services for investor education, strategy evaluation and trade execution.

Reliance Money aims at Rs 50,000 cr AUM under wealth mgmt

2008-09-08T02:20:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: Financial services arm of the ADAG Group Reliance Money which forayed into wealth management business two months ago, is aiming at Asset Under Management (AUM) size of about Rs 50,000 crore by the end of next year on the back of new products.

"We are targeting AUM size of about Rs 50,000 crore by the end of December 2009 for our wealth management business," Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said. The company has introduced two innovative products, he said, adding that there will be some more which will generate a good business.

The wealth management entity is currently managing assets of about Rs 1,000 crore. At the same time, the facility would be extended to 50 cities by December 2008 from the existing 21 cities now, he said.

Number of advisors for the business would be more than doubled to 365 from 165 at present, he added. The wealth management platform with a host of unique features, Bandyopadhyay said, is available to high networth individuals having investible surplus of over Rs 25 lakh.

Services like tax planning and assessment, real estate, art advisory, investment in art fund and estate planning are part of the advisory, he said, adding, "we also have a separate module which caters to the financial planning needs of senior citizens".

Currently, High Networth population of the country is about 1.3 million which is set to grow to 2 million in the next three years, he added.

According to industry studies, the population of high networth individuals (HNIs) in the country is expected to grow to over two million wealthy individuals in India, holding over 510 billion dollar in liquid assets, by 2011.

Reliance Money enters US market; ties up with OptionsXpress

2008-09-08T01:16:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI : Expanding its reach to American markets, Anil Ambani group's brokerage and financial services distribution entity Reliance Money has forged an alliance with the third largest online broker in the US, OptionsXpress.

The partnership would enable Indian investors to access the US stock market, while at the same time, NRIs and persons of Indian origin there would also be able to trade in Indian stock market, Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay told media.

Besides, R-Money could use this opportunity as a starting point for further expanding its presence in the US and Canadian markets, he said.

R-Money has already similar tie-ups in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong and plans to expand its operations in other countries as well.

Bandyopadhyay said that R-Money is looking to enter Malaysia and Canada in coming months and aims to generate 50 per cent of revenues from overseas markets by 2012.

The deal with OptionsXpress would provide an opportunity to Reliance Money's 27 lakh customers for diversifying their portfolio by trading in overseas stocks, he noted.

Indian retail investors would be able to access stock exchanges including New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and Philadelphia Stock Exchange and can trade in all US delivery based instrument like equities, Mutual Funds and Bonds.

The US equity markets are mostly liquid and allow investors to spread country and sectoral risk more effectively, he said.

OptionsXpress operates third major online brokerage platform in the US, besides E*Trade and Charles Schab, that provides securities brokerage products and trade execution.

Reliance Money, part of 100-billion dollar Anil Ambani group's financial services arm Reliance Capital, provides services ranging from equities, equity options and commodities futures, mutual funds, IPOs, life and general insurance products, offshore investments and credit cards.

It is the largest broking house in India with over two million customers and 8,500 outlets across 4,250 locations and endeavors to change the way investors transacts in financial markets and avails financial services. The average daily volume on the stock exchanges is Rs 2,000 crore, representing approximately three per cent of the total stock exchange volume.

How to invest in stocks abroad - Money & You (The Sunday ET)

2008-09-07T10:30:00.004+05:30

Diversify your portfolio and include more asset classes. Haven’t you heard this ad nauseum from your broker as he explains the virtues of financial planning. Ask 35-year-old Pankaj Trivedi, who recognised the wisdom in those words, but couldn’t get over the sense of ennui which gripped him in a depressed market scenario. But when his planner suggested him to invest abroad, Trivedi pushed away the negative sentiments like the US sub-prime crisis and jumped at the chance of investing in stocks abroad. While the thought of owning something abroad excited him, somewhere in his mind there were doubts about how he was going to be able to take the plunge, given his minimal knowledge and the situation abroad. To bridge the gap between making plans and fulfilling them, SundayET fills you with the things you need to know before investing in stock abroad.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

“Under the present RBI regulation, the maximum amount a person can remit overseas is $2,00,000,” says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO, Reliance Money. And this amount is all-inclusive. So if you have a child studying abroad, you investible amount will be what remains after deducting all the money you send to your child. Once you finalise the amount you have dedicated to invest abroad, you need to choose your mode of investment.

RELOCATING YOUR MONEY

There are three possible routes that you could follow. If you passionately follow stock movement — even in the international market — then you may want to invest directly in the market. But you first need to be in touch with a broker who is registered to trade in the market of your choice. To make this process easier, there are service providers such as Reliance Money and ICICI Direct which facilitate the process of getting in touch with a broker in your chosen country. “They help in remitting funds from your local account to an overseas trading account that is linked to the brokerage/ clearing firms,” says Vishal Gulechha, senior vice-president, equity product group, ICICIdirect.com.

The bank in India may require you to fill Form A2 and keep a letter of remittance in addition to authorisation and declaration forms. Money wired to your overseas account will generally reach the overseas account in 24-72 hours and then you are free to use your funds to buy whatever you want. However, “investors should remember that while the choice of investing directly does exist as an option, it is an extremely risky proposition given the fact that you are trading in an alien market, ” says Rajiv Shastri, head, business development and strategic initiatives, Lotus AMC.

MUTUAL FUND ROUTE

For those who are not conversant with the movement and fluctuations of the international market, it makes much more sense to approach a mutual fund house to help you make your decisions, especially as they generally have off-shore fund managers or a dedicated team which is clued into the international market scene. There are many funds which invest in stocks abroad and you should check if they are in line with your risk-return positioning.

Many of these funds may, however, not be investing entirely in stocks abroad. Many of the funds invest 65% in the domestic market (to be able to avail of tax benefits) and the remaining 35% abroad. If you’re investing in such funds, then take a look at their domestic investment pattern.

“However, if you are investing in funds which invest 100% in stocks abroad, you will not be able to avail of tax benefits. If you have reconciled yourself with this fact, then check whether the investment style of the fund sounds plausible,” says Shastri. The third option also works along the mutual fund route and is available in the form of fund in funds. These mutual funds further invest in funds, which invest in the overseas stock market.

REASON IT OUT

The logic behind venturing abroad is simple. “It protects the value of your capital by spreading risks across economies and reducing potential downside by not focusing on only one particular geographical and economic market,” says Gulechha. “But you need to ask yourself if you want diversify abroad to seek stability when many others are looking at markets like India for stability,” reminds Shastri. However, it is entirely up to you to decide whether you are ready to take the risk or not. In terms of returns, nothing can be predicted with surety and will vary with the market and the time frame that you are looking at.

LOCATION HUNTING

Emerging markets such as those in Brazil, Russia and China seem to be attractive prospects but they also come with additional risks. “The target should be to be get the benefits of diversification and reduce the volatility of investments,” says Gulechha. And while this may seem ironical, given all those warnings about US sub-prime crisis and so on, many analysts still recommend the US markets on the basis of depth, liquidity, historical returns, stability and market capitalisation. According to Bandopadhyay, “One could also invest in select commodity stocks as the commodity sector has been doing well in the past couple of years.”

IS THIS FOR YOU?

This may sound like a setback , given the enthusiasm that many are showing in investing abroad. However, financial planners caution that investing abroad may not the best deal for every type of investor. “International investments are generally recommended for very evolved investors. This is also advisable for HNIs who want to diversify their portfolio,” says Bandopadhyay. Explaining this, Shastri says, “the retail investor in India does not have enough exposure to equities in the domestic market and he is repeatedly encouraged to do this before looking at overseas markets, thus making international investments often look like HNI products.”

Reliance Money enters US market; ties up with OptionsXpress ...

2008-09-07T10:30:00.001+05:30

Sebi seeks investment cap hike in bourses

2008-09-06T15:26:00.000+05:30

6 Sep 2008, 0116 hrs IST,TNN

MUMBAI: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed to raise individual holding limit in stock exchanges to 15% for certain types of entities from the existing 5%. Sebi on Friday said that stock exchanges, depositories, clearing corporations, banks and insurance companies may be permitted to own up to 15% in an Indian bourse. For all other types of shareholdes, however, the holding cap will remain at 5%, the market regulator said in a discussion paper released for public comment.

''Sebi has also been receiving requests from certain quarters that the present limit of 5% is acting as a deterrent for attracting long-term anchor/strategic investors in stock exchanges,'' the regulator said in the discussion paper. In the last two years, National Stock Exchange (NSE), the largest stocks exchange in India, had sold stakes to top foreign investors like NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs. On the other hand, The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the oldest bourse in Asia, had Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) and Deutsche Boerse (DB), each buying 5% stake in the exchange.

The Sebi proposals, if passed, will allow foreign bourses like NYSE, SGX and DB to hike their stakes in the two Indian bourses. At present SGX and DB are in the process of getting regulatory approvals for one board seat each on the BSE. In turn, BSE holds 5% in Calcutta Stock Exchange, bought last year.

At present other than NYSE and Goldman Sachs, NSE's shareholders include LIC, SBI, ICICI Bank and a host of other banks, insurance companies and financial institutions (FIs). Other than a large numbers of brokers, BSE too has a host of banks, insurance companies, FIs, corporates and high networth individuals among its shareholders.

Current rules allow a combined foreign ownership of 49% in Indian bourses of which 23% is allowed for foreign institutional investment while foreign direct investment (FDI) is capped at 26%. What this means is that in case a stock exchange is not listed, foreign shareholders could hold only upto 26% in it. At present, there are 18 recognised stock exchanges in India that have been corporatised, in which 51% is held by shareholders other than trading members, the Sebi paper said. The market regulator said feedback on its proposals had to be submitted by September 19.

Recently, SBI's merchant banking wing SBI Capital Markets reduced its holding in NSE from 5.6% to 4.3%. Sebi's proposals, if implemented, will also give a breather to certain entities holding more than 5% in commodities exchanges also since they have been following similar regulations as applicable to stock exchanges. Currently, Goldman Sachs holds 7% stake in NCDEX, Fidelity International has 9% in the MCX, while Inter Continental Exchange holds 8% in the NCDEX.

They were given time till next June to pare their holdings to 5%. Sudip Bandhyopadhyay, chief executive of Reliance Money, which has a stake in commodity exchange NMCE, said the proposal, if implemented, will help in formation of new exchanges. The Sebi's discussion paper says that stock exchanges are public institutions.
Hence, as a matter of public policy, no individual investor should be allowed to hold a predominant position in them.

Rel Money eyes stake in HK Mercantile Exchange

2008-09-06T14:03:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: Reliance Money, the retail brokerage and distribution arm of Reliance Capital, is close to signing a deal to acquire 15-26% in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx). It is learnt that discussions are at an advanced stage and the deal could be signed as early as next week. The deal will value the exchange at $200 million.

HKMEx, which has been formed recently is looking to tap China’s oil market, the world’s second-largest consumer of oil. Currently, New York and London are the two key oil futures market and global prices move in tandem with trading on these two locations.

Sources informed ET that while talks are on to dilute as much as 26% in HKMEx to the Indian brokerage house, the final deal could involve Reliance Money picking around 10-15% through fresh issue of shares. Even with this holding, Reliance Money, will be the second-largest shareholder in the commodity exchange and will have a board membership.

When contacted, Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay declined to comment on the developments.

Promoted by the Hong Kong government, HKMEx is also believed to have attracted investments from some large global financial majors such as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, but none of them hold more than 10%.

Even as Asia has emerged as a key market for global commodities due to the turbo charged manufacturing and construction activity in India and China, the region does not have a strong commodity exchange. While both India and China have local bourses, there are curbs on participation of foreign investors besides sensitivity towards certain commodities. Chinese exchanges, in particular, focus more on metals and agri commodities and Shanghai exchange which does offer oil trading is not linked to international pricing.

The other two financial centres in Asia, Singapore and Tokyo haven’t been able to emerge as a big base for commodity trading for the region. Sources say Reliance Money is eyeing a strategic stake in HKMEx to capitalise on the Chinese demand for commodities. However, the going won’t be easy for HKMEx as other established exchange houses are also eyeing a piece of China’s commodity demand. Recently, Chicago Mercantile Exchange opened its Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.

HKMEx is proposed to start trading in the first quarter of 2009 and will kick-start its operations by offering dollar-denominated oil contracts. It would also diversify into other commodities going forward.

The deal would mean an expansion of operations in Hong Kong for the Indian firm. Reliance Money had recently formed a partnership with local firm Goldride Securities headed by the former Hong Kong Stockbrokers Association chairman Anthony Espina for distributing financial products and services.

The plan to look for overseas ventures is part of Reliance Money’s strategy to generate 50% of its revenue overseas by 2013. It is in the process of starting a full-fledged financial services operations through a JV in Saudi Arabia and has plans to expand its business in over 15 countries across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia by March 2009. It already has operations in the UAE, Oman and Hong Kong.

Sebi seeks investment cap hike in bourses-India Business-Business ...

2008-09-06T10:30:00.001+05:30

Market to move in a narrow range - Money & You (The Sunday ET)

2008-08-31T10:30:00.001+05:30

Entire South East Asia is currently evaluating and emulating relevant lessons from “Thaksinomics” made famous by the ex-Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra. His bottom-up approach to economics has gathered widespread appeal across the developing world. Thaksin’s approach — that access to capital, employment opportunities and basic social services can transform disadvantaged regions into growth engines — is now an accepted wisdom.

Chinese President Hu Jintao called for “harmonious growth” when the Chinese National People’s Congress met last March. This week, the Chinese and the Hong Kong press have been speculating that Beijing would soon declare a massive fiscal stimulus package targeting disadvantaged sectors of the economy.

The income disparities and structural flaws are particularly apparent in the fast developing BRIC nations. India, China, Russia and Brazil all suffer from these flaws. A massive oil discovery and investment grade credit ratings fuelled expectations that prosperity for Brazil’s 185 million people was only a matter of time. But a historic neglect of education is a major roadblock in Brazil’s quest to join the big leagues of developed economies.

Many critical structural reforms are still awaited in India and need to be carried out without any further delay to ensure political, economic and social harmony. The proposed pension, commodity market, banking and other financial sector reforms, rural education and development initiatives need to be put on an accelerated growth trajectory. The real task of balanced nation building needs to start without any further delay.

The Indian capital markets last week witnessed sharp movements during the week and ended in positive territory in spite of negative headwinds again coming in from the crude oil basket. On the positive side, headline Inflation numbers during the week turned out to be moderately lower at 12.40 per cent from 12.64 per cent in the previous week. The decline in inflationary levels was primarily driven down by lower prices of non-administered fuel products but Inflation is yet to peak off convincingly which could take another three-six weeks.

Meanwhile, the GDP growth during Q1 2008-09 (Apr-Jun) stood at 7.90 per cent slightly below the consensus expectation of 8.02 per cent; (Q4 2007-08: 8.8 per cent; Q1 2007-08: 9.2 per cent). This is the first time that the GDP growth has slipped below 8 per cent after nine quarters. More importantly high oil prices, and a whopping fertiliser subsidy bill are likely to ensure that the government exceed the fiscal deficit target of 2.5 per cent of the GDP for 2008-09 by a significantly higher margin.

In case oil prices continue to remain high for a much longer period, it would be no surprise that the government would have to take some hard decisions. Also, with the monsoons being only moderately positive till date and not excellent as compared to last year, there is a growing belief that agriculture growth for the coming year may well disappoint and offer little support to the GDP growth this year. Incidentally Q1FY09 farm sector growth stood at 3 per cent versus 4.4 per cent (YoY).

On the global markets front, stronger exports and higher consumer spending supported by the government saw GDP growth in the US growing robustly by 3.3 per cent in Q2 after recording a 0.9% growth in Q1 of current year. Consumer spending, which fuels two-thirds of the US economy, grew at 1.7 per cent with exports growing at 13.2 per cent in this period. In the domestic capital market, expiry of Aug Series in F&O had usual jitters and the series closed indecisively.

However, the start to the Sept series was with a bang on the back of very positive global cues and moderating domestic inflation. Unlike last month, this series has started off on little heavier side with more rollovers on stock futures side.(83 per cent), indicating more action outside index. FIIs continued to remain net sellers through the month of August to the tune of Rs 3,088 crore, thereby indicating cautious approach on the Indian markets.

Volumes still continue to remain low and are clearly indicative of lesser participation from institutional players.
In view of a truncated week and no build-ups on positive or negative side either, the coming week may see a ‘ranged’ and indecisive movement in the index. Action may get shifted to stock-specific trading.

(The writer is CEO, Reliance Money)

Reliance Money enters Eurozone

2008-08-29T13:54:00.000+05:30

29 Aug 2008, 0021 hrs IST, Partha Sinha,TNN

MUMBAI: While a host of brokerages in India are shrinking to tide over the current rough patch, Reliance Money, the largest broking house in the country in terms of customers, expanded its operations to the Eurozone, aiming to tap nearly 2 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) and people of Indian origin (PIOs) residing there.

The ADA Group firm has already set up a company in Ireland, Reliance Money Ireland, and is awaiting regulatory nod from UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) to start operations in the London market, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO, Reliance Money told TOI.

"Initially we will target NRIs and PIOs in the English-speaking areas within the Eurozone. Once we reach a critical scale, other areas within the Eurozone will follow," Bandyopadhyay said. As per estimates, nearly 1.5 million NRIs and PIOs live in the English-speaking Euro area.

With its office in Dublin (Ireland), Reliance Money now enjoys what is called 'passport facility,' allowing it to operate in the whole of Eurozone with minimal regulatory clearance. In the last one year, it had started its operations across Asia and also entered Africa, setting up operations in Dubai, Muscat, Nigeria, Hong Kong and Riyadh.

The company is also planning to set up offices in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Malaysia. Although some of the Indian broking houses are present in the UK, these firms mainly cater to the FII clients.

BSE calls off NMCE stake buy plan, Rel Money may move in

2008-08-11T13:47:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI : The deepening internal crisis at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) appears to have had an impact on exchange’s plans to foray into the commodities market.

Asia’s oldest stock exchange has reversed its decision to buy a 26% stake in Ahmedabad-based National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE), according to officials familiar with the development.

The Rs 35-crore deal could not be operationalised even after five months of signing the agreement between the two exchanges.

An official with knowledge of the deal said that the transaction had been kept on hold for a long time, primarily due to serious differences among BSE board members over functioning and decision-making in the management.

These differences have led to the resignations of non-executive chairman Shekhar Dutta, managing director Rajnikant Patel and director Jamshyd Godrej.

“The deal has been in limbo because of some legal compliances which could not be followed. Its failure is nothing to do with the current crisis in the BSE management,” said a BSE board member.

After the completion of the process of corporatisation and demutualisation, the going has not been smooth for BSE, which has caused concern among broker-shareholders and strategic investors. The BSE management has not been able to address key areas of concern, particularly the dormant F&O segment.

This has dampened exchange’s growth and reduced competitiveness, according to stock brokers. While confirming that BSE has dropped its plans to acquire a stake of 26% in NMCE, its managing director Kailash Gupta declined to elaborate on the reasons for this development. However, he said, “They may have some internal problems.”

Reliance Money, a securities brokerage and distribution company of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, had showed an interest in acquiring a 26% stake in NMCE last month.

Mr Gupta said that with the BSE calling off the deal, there is a possibility that Reliance Money could acquire a 26% stake in NMCE subject to regulatory approvals.

He said that the issue was still being discussed with other shareholders regarding the shareholding pattern.

Now, Indians can trade on a dozen global stock exchanges-India ...

2008-08-10T10:30:00.000+05:30

10 Aug 2008, 1801 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: Dalal Street is no more the single avenue for Indians looking to invest in stocks, with leading retail brokerage firm Anagram becoming third major domestic player to offer the investors here an opportunity to invest in overseas equity markets.

Indian investors will be able to directly trade on a real time basis in stocks listed on as many as 12 bourses in the US, Europe, Asia and Middle East from next month through a new e-trading initiative being launched by Anagram.

When contacted, Anagram's retail business CEO Mayank Shah confirmed the development saying the company has signed an agreement with a Dubai-based firm to offer real-time online trading for Indian investors in multiple markets and international exchanges.
"We have signed an agreement with Mubasher Financial Services, a Dubai-based leading market information and e-trading platform provider, to offer real time online trading for Indian investors," Shah said.

Anagram plans to target High Networth Individuals (HNIs) and Super HNIs for its new offering and these investors could become a key driver for this platform, he added.

The new offering would provide investors an opportunity to diversify their risk and assets in a bid to leverage on newer opportunities and help maximise their gains, the industry experts believe.

While Shah declined to divulge further details, industry experts believe this Internet-based online real time platform would enable Indian clients to buy or sell equity shares on premium International Exchanges like NYSE, NASDAQ, American Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange among others.

It is understood Anagram also plans to offer equity trading on other stock exchanges including those in Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Korea, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Argentina, Vietnam and Taiwan in the next 6-9 months.

"This unique offering is a part of Anagram's constant endeavour to offer value-added services to out increasing customer base, globally, including Dubai where we intend to open our office," Anagram Chairman Munesh Khanna said.

The offering would provide round-the-clock access to stock markets in different time zones, according to their trading timings, Shah added.

Anagram would be the first entity to offer real time, secure e-trading platform across multiple exchanges in more than one continent to its over 1.50 lakh strong retail investor base.

Asked whether investors would be interested in looking at other market amid concerns of global slowdown, Shah said, with the platform investors can invest in other emerging markets like China, which have performed relatively better than other developed markets.

"This is giving investors to choose from stocks from various markets across the world and seek the most attractive valuations," Shah said.

Last year, leading online domestic brokerage firm ICICI Direct launched delivery-based trading in shares listed on the US stock exchanges, while Anil Ambani group's brokerage and financial services distribution arm Reliance Money also offers overseas trading facility through a tie-up with CMC Markets.

Trading in overseas stocks has become possible after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed individuals to remit up to 2,00,000 dollars annually in current and capital account including equities.

Looking for right impetus - Money & You (The Sunday ET)

2008-08-03T10:30:00.001+05:30

Morgan Stanley Asset Management recently highlighted interesting facts about Brazil and Turkey’s economic growth during the past few years. For much of the past decade, the emerging markets of Brazil and Turkey were considered identical twins.

Following their long history of high indebtedness and hyperinflation, which led them to the edge of the abyss in 2002, both economies embarked on a path of structural reforms and staged remarkable recoveries. They appeared to share a common destiny, with their stock markets and currencies trading in sync.

Till oil did them part. The commodity price explosion led by oil since late 2007 separated the fate of resource-rich Brazil, and resource-poor Turkey. Their divergent paths are symptomatic of the way the world has been operating this year. The only axis around which the global economy revolves is oil. In the first half of 2008, stock markets of most oil-exporting countries soared to new highs, while those of oil importers plunged 15% on average.

One, however, needs to notice the remarkable efficiency with which Brazil’s economic administration has handled the current scenario. Brazil pre-empted the global food and energy spike by raising the benchmark lending rate three times this year to 13%, one of the highest in the world. Caging the inflation threat has also won Brazil a new standing in the financial markets.

It is also interesting to note that in spite of such a sharp currency appreciation, Brazil is the world’s leading exporter not just of coffee but soybeans, beef, sugar cane, ethanol and frozen chicken. In India, we are scared of currency appreciation as we feel exports will get hurt!

But oil could sow the seeds of its own destruction. The oil price surge is causing widespread inflation problems, even in oil-exporting countries. It’s telling that the markets of Brazil and Russia have over the past several days joined the global bear run.

In the United States, shares of energy companies are declining despite forecasts of ever-rising oil prices. But today’s global economic structure doesn’t allow the stagflationary impulses of the 1970s to build for long. To put the current situation in a long-term perspective, average inflation in emerging markets is currently running at 8%, up from a record low of 4% in 2005 but still well below the 20-30% levels of the 1970s and 80s.

The main risk to the world economy in the months ahead is a substantial slowdown in global growth rather than any further significant rise in price pressures. The Indian capital markets displayed a sharp volatile trend with a negative bias after the RBI credit policy was announced last week.

The RBI has further cautioned that economic growth is likely to moderate further in FY09 (has revised GDP growth target down for FY09 from 8.5% to 8%) and most interest sensitive sectors such as auto, real estate, construction are likely to take a hit on the profitability front in the coming quarters.

Most banks have already reacted to the latest RBI move by raising their prime lending rates by around 50-75 bps which is bound to make home, personal and auto loans far more expensive. Importantly, it seems the RBI will continue to have a hawkish view on inflation, which could see GDP growth moderating further, with both consumption and investment growth showing further decline.

Nevertheless, some key positives during last week were the continued softening in crude oil prices, now ranging around $123-124 barrel, which now clearly looks set for a further downtrend amidst reports that US oil consumption has recently shown a negative growth.

Also, headline inflation numbers have continued to rise to 11.98% week on week but the pace of growth has slowed down which is comforting. However, despite all the fiscal measures taken by the RBI, inflation still continues to remain high and is unlikely to ease-off soon. RBI is targeting to bring down inflation from the current level of 11-12% to about 7% by March ’09, with long-term inflation target pegged at 5%.

Going ahead, the markets are expected to hold the recent lows , although there could be further global shocks since most of the negatives in the domestic arena have been fully discounted in market prices. Also, the recent F&O data suggests that the August ’08 series is starting on a lighter note which is the lowest since December ’07 series.

This leaves less room for any further downside. The recent lows on Nifty of 3,800 is likely to hold the for near term and in the short term, the markets may see further extension of gains. Any positive move from the government on PSU disinvestment or FDI liberalisation may provide the market with necessary impetus for a rally.

(The writer is CEO, Reliance Money ,

Sail through easily - Money & You (The Sunday ET)

2008-07-27T10:30:00.001+05:30

ASHISH Arora’s son, who recently joined a college in the United States, called up late one night requesting him to send money to his account to meet emergency expenses. Next morning, Arora rushed to the nearest bank which provides transfer services, only to be handed a few forms and asked for documents that he hadn’t even thought of carrying. To make sure that next time you don’t make the same mistake, SundayET lists out steps which you can follow to sail through the outward and inwards remittances process.

APPROACH THE RIGHT PLACE
Outward remittances or the process of sending money abroad is governed by many regulations. In India, outward remittances are made mainly through banks. At the outset, you need to remember that you just cannot trust any individual or a financial firm with the responsibility of sending your money. Experts recommend that you should always try to choose a bank with an international footprint, which will make your job easier.

CHOOSE MODE OF TRANSFER
The next step is to choose the mode of transfer. One option is to get a Foreign Currency Demand Draft (FCDD). This draft will be denominated in foreign currency and should be drawn in favour of the recipient/ beneficiary. The beneficiary does not necessarily need to have an account with the same bank. The other option is to send money via wire transfer. Do not be puzzled if the bank official uses the word SWIFT instead of wire transfer. “A wire transfer could be done via SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), which is a secure and standardised system by which banks are able to correspond with each other. While the charges for a wire transfer are higher, it scores over FCCD in terms of time as the transfer can be made within 24 hours,” says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO, Reliance Money. A demand draft, on the other hand, needs to be sent abroad physically and takes time to get cleared.

THINGS TO BE DONE
You primarily need to fill a remittance request form where the purpose behind sending the money needs to be indicated clearly. If the amount you are sending is large, you may also have to indicate the source of money. You are also required to fill Form A2 and be in possession of a certificate from a chartered accountant. “There is a limit to the amount that can be sent. RBI has placed an annual cap of $200,000 per person per year,” says Girish Nayak, head (NRI services), ICICI Bank. While the forex rate is mentioned to the customer before the transaction, you should cross-check the same with the forex rate card of the bank. “While you may have sent the money keeping a certain exchange rate in mind, the actual exchange rate applicable will be the one on the day when the beneficiary receives the money,” informs Bandyopadhyay.

CHECK THE REGULATIONS
Remittances for the purpose of gambling, margin trading and so on are not allowed by the RBI. “Hence, if your remittance is not for a common purpose like education or family maintenance, check if it is allowed under the FEMA,” warns Nayak. Experts caution that you should be wary of the regulations of the country to which you are sending your money to. Otherwise, you can get yourself in trouble and get caught under an AML (anti-money laundering) filter or any such filter. This can risk the chance of your transaction being blocked or reported to the regulator.

GO ONLINE
In case of inward remittances (sending money to India), in addition to bank channels and wires, foreign currency cheques can be issued which can be taken to a branch in India for collection. Rupee cheques are also issued in the Gulf countries. Of late, many people are using the online money transfer service offered by banks. Now banks even offer a shorter turnaround time of one day for sending money to India. This is in contrast to the general turnaround time of three to five days. If you are looking for a really time-efficient method, you can rely on money transfer agencies which can reduce the time lag to about five minutes.

PROOF OF IDENTITY
If you are collecting the money in cash, you need to carry a proof of identity and proof of residence such as your passport, voter’s ID or driving licence. A money transfer system generally gives the sender a code, which needs to be passed on to the recipient before he gets the money. “Charges such as administrative costs, transfer fees and agent commission are taken care by the sender and depend on the amount transferred, the mode of transfer and the country,” explains a Western Union official in India.

CHECK OUT
You must keep in mind that money transfer systems generally have a limit to the amount that you can send per transaction and a certain number of transactions are only permitted in a year. There are also limitations set by the country from where you are sending the money from. “Moreover, if the money is being sent for investment purposes, you need to make sure that these are in line with the norms governing NRI investments,” says Nayak. “If the payment is not received by the receiver with 45 days from the date of sending money, the transaction will not be conducted and the money will be refunded to the sender after deducting the administrative cost,” warns Chandok.

Bear market turns PE attractive, 150 deals likely in Q3- Market ...

2008-07-25T10:30:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI: The bear market has led to resurgence in private equity deals. “More than 150 deals are expected in the third quarter of 2008. Investors from Mauritius, Europe and Middle East are poised to strike deals with Indian companies with good valuations,” said YEN Management Consultant Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sunil Shirole, who recently visited 10 countries meeting 50 private equity investors.

Investors still believe in the strong fundamentals of Indian economy and they are coming to India with a 5-7 year time horizon, Shirole said.

Some recent PE deals: Reliance Money acquired 26 per cent stake in National Multi Commodity Exchange for $25 million; Bupa Asia Pacific took 26 per cent stake in Max New York Life Insurance for $24 million; Chrys Capital picked up 7 per cent in Amtek Auto for Rs 229 crore; Estee Lauder bought 15 per cent stake in Forest Essential for an undisclosed amount; Dubai’s Eastgate Capital invested Rs 100 crore in Avendus Capital.

“Valuations have turned reasonable and attractive. This is the right time to look at investments,” said Alok Gupta, MD & CEO, Axis Private Equity.

Axis is currently evaluating investments in healthcare, renewable energy, hospitality, and logistics. Recently, it invested $15 million in Vishwa Infrastructures and Services which specializes in water and sewage projects.

“PE investment is bound emerge as a popular route to raise funds for mid size companies which are currently dragging their feet on entering the capital market,” Gupta said.

The US subprime crisis and its aftermath have helped PE placements in India. Investors across the world are shifting focus to emerging markets where they see good returns.

“Big companies in US are incurring huge losses due to the sub-prime crisis. If they continue to make losses in the next quarter, emerging markets like India and China will get more and more PE investments,” added Gupta.

A week back, SOMA Networks, engaged in providing mobile WiMAX products and professional services, secured $51 million of equity financing from Daiwa Securities Group, Daiwa Securities SMBC Principal Investments, Ridgeway Capital Partners, and India Knowledge Fund, a private equity fund of Japan-based SBI Holdings and others.

Asserted Sanjay Randhar, director, India Knowledge Fund, “Due to rising interest rates and tight liquidity, debt funding has become difficult. But companies need to continue with their expansion projects. This scenario holds good for PE investments.”

“With IPOs on the backburner, companies have no other option but to raise money from PEs. I expect 20-30 per cent growth in private equity deals in a year,” said Srini Vudayagiri, MD, Lightspeed Venture Partner.

The continued bearish phase in the market has created opportunities in striking pipe deals, added Vudayagiri.

As per SEBI regulations, six months average price or current market price, whichever is higher, should be considered for pricing in pipe deals.

Bangalore-based Lightspeed is also looking at investments in infrastructure-derived industries, media & entertainment, and financial services. However, the fund house refuses to reveal any details of the ongoing negotiations.

YEN Consultant is also mediating 2-3 deals between Middle East and Indian companies in the education and health care sectors. These are expected to be inked in 2/3 weeks.

Brokerages try to reach out to NRIs and PIOs

2008-07-20T10:30:00.001+05:30

Though data on NRI investments is hazy, preferred asset classes are stocks, mutual funds and property, experts say. According to RBI data, $3.9 bn of NRI money flowed into India in 2006-07 , compared to $2.8 bn the previous year. About 46% of the net investible sum is put in the abovementioned assets classes. The US, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia are the top countries from which a majority of the NRI inflows are coming into India.

According to the recently-published Merrill Lynch-Capgemini Asia-Pacific Wealth Report, the NRI segment is emerging as a niche segment within the high networth individual (HNI) market globally.

One of the ways to enter foreign markets is to forge partnerships with local financial institutions . In a similar pact, Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Money recently tied up with Chellarams Plc, a leading South Africa-based industrial house, to offer financial services to retail investors in Nigeria.

With this arrangement, Indians (including PIOs) living in that country will be able to invest in Indian equities, equity options and commodities futures, mutual funds, insurance products and offshore investment instruments. The company has got into similar arrangements in Oman, UAE, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. It has plans to expand its operations in over 15 countries spread across Europe, North Africa, the West Asia and South East Asia by next year, company officials said.

According to Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the brokerage is aiming to generate 50% of our revenues from overseas markets by 2012. Geojit Financial Services has also forged similar partnerships with local institutions to facilitate NRIs (living in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman) trade in Indian equities.

Not stopping at forging local partnerships, broking firms like Religare Capital have gone ahead buying established foreign companies to widen their operational reach. The Ranbaxy-promoted brokerage firm acquired 98% stake in the London-based Hichens Harrison & Co, that claims to have presence in 10 overseas markets including rare Latam equity hubs like Argentina and Brazil.

“We plan to have an India-desk in all these countries. Initially, we will start with institutional investments, but later on help retail investors as well,” said a Religare spokesman. The brokerage expects its revenues to jump over 40% as a result of its overseas expansion.

Nervousness to continue- Money & You-The Sunday ET-Features-The ...

2008-07-13T10:30:00.002+05:30

An interesting point was made on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, regarding the role of any nation’s central bank in controlling inflation in today’s globalised and open world. As global trade/ GDP ratios rise sharply, the price of tradable goods is increasingly determined by international, rather than domestic, demand and supply. Most of the inflation in tradable goods over the past year, in India and abroad, has been in oil, other non-agri commodities and food — marked by global demand-supply imbalances.

Prices of most other tradable goods are still relatively stable on account of the efficiency effects of globalisation. While the world economy taken together can be seen as closed, the role of nation-based monetary policy is becoming increasingly marginal in impacting domestic consumer price inflation. However, the central banks of developing economies do have a role in correcting the internal imbalances.

International oil price rises should be passed on to the consumer as soon as possible and in as graduated a manner as feasible so as to avoid shocks. If everybody expects oil prices to reign high in the foreseeable future, it is best for the consumer to feel the pinch and curb consumption. Then over time, all economic agents will veer round to a less energy-intensive regime.

The markets during the last week displayed an upward bias initially but were unable to sustain the rise following a combination of both macro and political factors. On the political front, the Left finally withdrew its support to the UPA government, which was on anticipated lines and actually impacted market sentiment positively.

However, two other negative factors which continued to keep the market edgy were the sustained rise in crude prices, which touched a record high of $147.25a barrel after correcting earlier to $136 a barrel just a couple of days back on rising political tensions between Iran and Israel, and a weakness in dollar.

Crude price rose sharply on concerns that Israel may be preparing to attack Iran, while a strike in Brazil and renewed militant activity in Nigeria have continued to threaten supplies. The second negative factor was the continuous rise being witnessed in bond yields on government 10-year paper during the last two to three weeks which has now averaged a new high of 9.5%, clearly indicating that some stringent steps from RBI are expected soon to tone down inflation pressures in the near term.

Also, on the macro front, IIP numbers released for May 2008 during the week turned out to be extremely disappointing and alarming. In May ’08, IIP growth has come down to 3.8% as compared to 10.6% in May last year, and also the April IIP numbers were revised downwards to 6.2% from 7% earlier.

In line with global slowdown in industrial production, India’s industrial growth will moderate in 1H2008 and hence, will impact the GDP growth negatively. Also, the infrastructure growth during May ’08 is down to 3.5% as compared to 7.8% in May last year. The only soothing factor is that food production in the country is all set to touch a record high of 231 mn tones which will hopefully bring down inflation, which is now close to 12%.

We would soon be in the midst of the earnings season and corporate earnings — in the light of higher interest costs, increased cost push and a slowdown in demand — are bound to get impacted adversely. While the full impact of increased interest costs has not yet been reflected on corporates till date, the going ahead is expected to be choppy as battling higher input costs coupled with slowdown in demand will pose a big challenge.

Sectors such as IT, telecom and pharma will continue to show improved earnings numbers during this quarter but capital-intensive sectors such as cement, metals, real estate, construction, banking and auto are likely to show significant margin pressures.

Interestingly, FIIs during the last week, which earlier had hedged positions in F&O, which was largely responsible for the high July series Nifty discount, have now unwound their hedged positions and turned sellers in the cash segment. This is a dangerous trend and could be read as an indication of some more outflow on account of the FIIs.

The outlook for this week continues to remain edgy and negative. Although the markets are now clearly in the process of a bottom formation, a fall to the recent low of 3,800 levels for Nifty is not ruled out considering the impending RBI action which will be very stringent looking at the macro numbers and the earnings trend seen in corporate results which will now set the tone ahead for the markets.

However, a value investor may be advised to favour domestic to external consumption story and also look for value in those sectors that have been beaten up the most.
(CEO, Reliance Money)

HNIs see future(s) in exotic oil products

2008-07-13T10:30:00.001+05:30

While crude-oil futures soared to a new record of above $147 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the energy-tracking ETFs were sitting atop in the first-quarter performance posting more than 40% returns. US 12-Month Oil Fund (43.4%), PowerShares DB Oil (41.3%) and PowerShares DB Energy (40.1%) were the top performing ETFs on the New York Mercantile Exchange during April-June 2008.

According to Sonu Bhasin, senior vice-president (retail banking) and head of wealth management group at Axis Bank, with the markets continuing to remain volatile, HNIs are reluctant to take more exposure in Indian equities.

“They’re actively looking for new opportunities and now that they can legally invest a substantial amount in foreign ventures, they’re more open towards taking exposure in exotic products such as oil ETFs,” said Ms Bhasin. She said they’ve received a number of requests from their clients. However, RBI doesn’t allow banks to offer any products which are non-rupee denominated. “But we’ve heard that some other companies in the wealth management space are offering such products,” she said.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO of Reliance Money, feels that it’s not surprising that Indian HNIs are also now actively speculating in oil futures and oil ETFs. “These are savvy investors who are looking to sense every opportunity they can seize from the markets. Today they are investing in oil products, tomorrow you will find them investing in gold ETFs and probably the day after that they might be buying copper.

They are a handful of people who are investing in these leveraged ETFs and short funds that allow them to profit from market pullbacks,” he said. A CEO of a wealth management company, in fact, blamed this short-sightedness of HNIs worldwide for the rising crude oil prices in the world markets. “It’s short-term money and they should understand they cannot live a life with it.

Middle-East oil politics apart, the HNIs globally are to a great extent responsible for building speculative short positions in the crude oil futures, which is driving the prices up. With Indian HNIs also jumping into the bandwagon, it’s only adding fuel to the fire already raging on,” the CEO said.

Reliance Money starts Islamic portfolio management scheme

2008-05-02T11:46:00.003+05:30

Reliance Money has launched a sharia-compliant portfolio management scheme in partnership with Islamic investment service Parsoli Corporation Ltd.

Reliance Money director Sudip Bandyopadhyay said at a news conference the two firms would jointly offer financial products to encourage Muslims to make investments in Indian markets.

Islamic law bans the receipt of interest and operates on the principle of sharing risk and reward among those involved in a business venture. Investing in sectors such as alcohol, gambling and pornography is prohibited.

Reliance Money ties up with Triveni Group

2008-04-25T12:07:00.001+05:30

Anil Ambani owned Reliance Money on Thursday announced that it had tied up with Triveni Group-promoted retail chain, a move aimed at tapping the potential of rural and semi-urban markets. According to a company release, under the new joint venture, Reliance Money will distribute financial products and services through the outlets of Triveni retail chain, Khushali Bazaar in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

Reliance Money to open 20,000 outlets

2008-04-23T14:10:00.002+05:30

Mumbai, April 06: Anil Ambani group`s brokerage and financial services firm, Reliance Money plans to double the number of its outlets to 20,000 by the end of this fiscal from the current 10,000, a top official said.

"We are in 4,257 locations presently and plans to enhance our presence to 5,165 centers by this year-end while the total number of outlets will increase to 20,000 during the period," Reliance Money`s chief executive officer, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, told agencies.

The company, which has emerged as one of the leading brokerages in the country in last one-year, had recently hinted at its plans to expand its operations to Bahraian, Doha, Kuwait and Singapore.

Besides, the company is also looking at setting up more outlets in rural-semi urban areas by opening about 7,000 outlets in tier-i and tier-ii cities in next one year, he said.

"More rural outlets would help the company to acquire more customers by making them aware about various products. Large number of customers are now coming from the rural parts of the country and showing interest to know more about equity-related investment products," Bandyopadhyay said.

The company had recently launched a loyalty-card programme, club elite, under which all its customers will earn reward points for all transactions made through the company.

Bureau Report

BBA, RMoney & BSE to launch India's first spot bullion exchange

2008-04-21T14:28:00.002+05:30

Bombay Bullion Association (BBA), in a tie-up with Reliance Money (R-Money) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is likely to announce the launch of spot bullion exchange early next week.

The new spot exchange will provide trading platform for gold and silver to bullion traders. It will provide T+2 trading system for the physical trading of bullion (in demat form) and unit of trading will be kilo-bar, market sources said.

As FE had already reported early that if this proposal materializes, it will be the first spot bullion trading platform in the country under which spot trading will be carried out on electronic platform.

"It will give a fillip to the physical bullion trade in the country which is facing problems in areas of quality, benchmark price and lack of common trading system in the physical market," a director of BBA told FE.

BBA, having a member strength of more than 250, is a national-level bullion association which contributes about 75% of the national bullion trade in the country.

"Trading will be carried in a similar fashion like Gold ETFs traded at the domestic stock exchanges," another director of BBA said.

As per information available from the local bullion market, the association has signed a memorandum of understanding with R-Money for this proposal. As per the terms, BBA and R-money may include Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and IT People (IT Solution Company) for providing online trading platform for this venture.

BBA has already formed a special committee of five member, who are directors of the association, to finalize the proposal with its venture partners.

Reliance Money to break even by FY 08: CEO

2008-04-21T14:21:00.002+05:30

Buoyed by tremendous consumer response and with banking on its huge roll-out plan, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's brokerage and distribution arm Reliance Money expects to break-even by the end of the current fiscal.

"Almost 75,000 investors have logged in on to our platform since inception in the last month-and-half. Besides, we are adding around 2,000 new investors daily," Reliance Money's Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay told PTI.

"Our performance so far gives us the confidence that we shall break-even by this fiscal-end," Bandyopadhyay said. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital [Get Quote], Reliance Money is on the threshold of implementing a massive expansion pro gramme, designed to have its footprint in 5,165 tehsils of the country by the end of FY 08.

"Our plan is to open another 7,500 kiosks by the end of this financial year and ramp it up to 25,000 in the next two-three-year period," Bandopadhyay said. Since inception in April, Reliance Money has already rolled out 2,500 kiosks and is present in 700 cities and towns in India.

The company, he said, aims to cover 5,165 tehsils of the total 5,645 tehsils by the end of this fiscal in an attempt to bring first-generation investors into the broking platform fold, besides promoting the industry.

Reliance Money presents Pehla Kadam - Budget Special

2008-04-15T13:44:00.000+05:30

Part 1/3:

Part 2/3:

Part 3/3:

Reliance Money to offer retail commodity broking services in 2 months

2008-04-11T12:59:00.000+05:30

Reliance Money Ltd, the broking arm of Reliance Capital Ltd, is planning to offer commodity broking services for retail investors in two months, said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and chief executive officer.

At present, Reliance Money offers this service to high networth individuals and big corporate clients only as the environment is not conducive for retail participation in commodity futures, he said. "We are planning the retail launch of commodity broking services in a big way, may be in a couple of months' time," Bandyopadhyay said. Commodity markets do not have adequate depth in absence of institutional and banks' participation, he said. "Last year, we had planned a big-bang retail foray in commodity broking through portfolio management services." However, portfolio management services have not yet been permitted in commodity futures unlike in the stock market, he said. Reliance Money has already launched a mobile portal that provides real time commodity prices free of cost, he said.

India's Reliance Money draws up aggressive global expansion plan

2008-04-08T23:01:00.000+05:30

Seeking to complement its domestic target of doubling its Indian presence to 20,000 outlets this year, Anil Ambani group's Reliance Money has drawn out an aggressive expansion plan for the overseas market to set up shop in about half a dozen locations by the end the current fiscal year.

Reliance Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the company will be setting up offices in six to seven strategic locations around the world in 2008-09.

Reliance Money to expand operations to the Sultanate of Oman

2008-04-07T14:07:00.000+05:30

Reliance Money, the financial distribution company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has received an ‘in-principle approval’ for setting up a branch and offering investment advice in the Sultanate of Oman. Reliance Money is the first Indian company to have received such an approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) Board, the regulator in Oman.

Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director and CEO, Reliance Money said, “Having successfully launched our operations in the UAE, we now plan to offer cost-effective, quality financial products & services to our clients in the Sultanate of Oman. This is a part of our endeavor to reach out to the large NRI and PIOs in the Middle East.”

Reliance Money will initially launch its broking, and mutual fund distribution services. The company will also be offering a mobile portal that will allow users to get free real-time access to market information on their phones; in addition to real-time chat facility, with its experts, to get high quality market research and guidance to take an informed decision.

The company also plans to offer portfolio management services at an entry level of as low as $50,000.

Reliance Money, made its debut in the Middle East by launching its bouquet of cost effective and secure financial services in the UAE in February this year. “We plan to enter other Gulf countries like Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar in the next 6-12 months,” added Mr. Bandyopadhyay.

Reliance Money partners with Recognia Inc, takes broking to next level for retail customers

2008-04-07T13:37:00.000+05:30

Reliance Money, the financial distribution company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, today became the first and only Indian company to launch simplified and sophisticated Automated Technical Analysis on its platform for retail customers.

The company launched this initiative in partnership with Recognia Inc of Canada, leaders in chart pattern recognition and price forecasting through technology that analyzes the price action of stocks of all publicly traded companies and indicates new investment opportunities.

The partnership was announced by Mr Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director and CEO, Reliance Money and Mr Rick Escher, President and CEO of Recognia at a conference here today.

“Technical analysis, till date, is a privilege available to institutions and HNIs and the Indian retail investors have been deprived of these tools so far. The addition of Recognia's sophisticated Automated Technical Analysis as an add-on feature on our platform will provide automated simplified analysis that will inform the customer about shift in trends of different stocks in the Indian markets” said Mr Bandyopadhyay

"Our automation and simplification of technical analysis is a good match for Reliance Money's commitment to offer qualitative tools to Indian investors participating in the stock market. Our daily analysis on over 55,000 instruments from 39 exchanges is helping millions of people in North America and Europe and we are excited to be working with Reliance Money to make it available to the investors and traders in India,” said Mr Escher.

Recoqnia’s Technical Analysis will allow Reliance Money users to identify customers about shift in price movements and emerging trends that will help them look up ‘bullish’ and ‘bearish’ notifications for any company thereby providing them an insight into the possible direction for the scrip price.

Recognia's Research is updated throughout every trading day - providing independent and objective notification of shifts in trends and changes in supply and demand that are otherwise not easily visible. When certain movements of the stock prices occur, Recognia distributes notices that help recipients identify profitable trades and make timely transactions.

Automated email notification will be sent to Reliance Money users based on personalized criteria, such as opportunity type, the price range or type of pattern desired, set by them. Subscribers will have the added benefit of receiving the daily ‘Top Bullish and Bearish Opportunities’ sent directly to them.

The technical services are available for introductory free 7-day trail period to Reliance Money users. Post the trail period, this service is available to users at a nominal subscription of Rs. 99 for 3 months/ Rs. 179 for 6 months/ Rs. 299 for a year, i.e., less than Re 1 a day.

Reliance Money is a comprehensive financial services and solution provider. Its endeavor is to change the way India transacts in financial markets and avails financial services. Reliance Money provides a single window, enabling customers to access, amongst others, Equity & Commodity Derivatives, Mutual Funds, IPOs, Life and General Insurance Products, Offshore Investments, Money Transfer, Money Changing, Gold Coins and Credit Cards.

Reliance Money is a group company of Reliance Capital – one of India’s leading and fastest growing private sector financial services companies, ranking among the top 3 private sector financial services and banking companies in terms of net worth. Reliance capital is a part of the Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Established in 2000, Recognia’s proprietary pattern recognition technology is capable of recognizing patterns in the price charts of any publicly traded financial instrument including stocks, bonds, funds, commodities, currencies and indexes. These chart patterns are known to indicate trading opportunities. This ability has not previously been available and was a task that previously had to be performed manually, making it humanly impossible to monitor all stocks and all commodities on a continual basis. The Recognia system currently scans over 16,000 charts per day and this number is continually increasing as additional exchanges are added.

Recognia generates content in-house and licenses it to financial portals, online brokerages and other financial institutions. Some of its clients include Bloomberg, Thomson Financial, HSBC and TD Waterhouse, among others. Recognia products include quantitative data feeds, white-label Internet applications, email alerts, news wire feeds, and white-label market letters.

Anil Ambani, Kotak eye commexes

2008-04-03T11:55:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: The Reliance Anil Ambani group is believed to have decided to enter the commodity trading business by setting up a large exchange in the country as part of its plans to capitalise on the vast opportunities in this market.

Besides R-ADAG, another corporate giant Kotak group is also mulling over setting up a commodity bourse by acquisition of some regional exchange to get the platform and other technical support, sources close to the development said.

While Kotak group officials were not available for comments, the Reliance group declined to comment on any specific plans for entering into this business.

When asked whether the group might look at entering this business, Reliance Capital's brokerage and financial products distribution arm Reliance Money's CEO Sudeep Bandyopadhyay said on the sidelines of a conference here, "We are always open to any opportunity that come our way."

However, he did not comment on any specific plans regarding this new business. The group is already present in the commodity brokerage business through Reliance Money. Even as the group officials did not wish to comment, sources said the new business could have some existing bourses as well as a strategic associate as partners to gain technical, business and infrastructure support.

According to experts, this market could be in for a major overhaul with some large corporate houses waiting to start their own bourses.

Another emerging conglomerate Indiabulls group, which is present in businesses like brokerage, financial services, real estate, retail and power have already tied up with state-run trading firm MMTC to start a commodity exchange, for which it is awaiting necessary approvals.

These corporate houses are getting lured to huge growth potential in the Indian commodity market, which is already of the size of close to $1 trillion and could gain further scale given a continuing bull run across the world in this segment for over five years now, they added.

Kotak group has a strong presence in financial markets through its banking, brokerage and other businesses. ADAG is present across diversified businesses such as telecom, power, financial services, energy, infrastructure and media.
While it was not clear which existing exchange R-ADAG was looking at to gain the platform and infrastructure, sources said it may not be the bourses in Rajkot or Ahmedabad as rumoured.

Dabbawalas to market Reliance Power IPO

2008-01-16T13:38:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI: Reliance Money, the financial services and products distribution company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has latched on to a marketing innovation. The firm has roped in the Six Sigma perfected dabbawalas to get an edge in their run-up to the Reliance Power IPO, among a host of other tradeable financial services.

The dabba which arrives on the dot at most office desks with home-cooked food, will have other steaming offers in a bulging paper envelope. Apart from the full bouquet of mutual funds, insurance products and money transfer services, Reliance Money expects to push demat accounts, and IPO application forms through this channel, beginning with the Reliance Power application forms. The dabbawalas will not only carry Reliance Money’s messages across the city, they will even pick up requests and completed forms from customers back to the company.

"Its a dedicated two-way communications channel," says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director of Reliance Money. "The idea is to reach out to a maximum number of retail investors." According to recent estimates, the dabbawalas move around 1.6 lakh lunch boxes everyday across the length and breath of Mumbai, with a workforce of around 5,000.

The alliance ensures that Reliance Money gets access to the most sought after segment of 24-60 year old professionals in the city, "each of who is individualistic enough to insist on fresh, hot home food every day. Reaching out directly to this segment makes more marketing sense than acquiring impersonal mailing lists," says the director.

Given that some parts of this segment may not qualify as traditional equity investors, putting across a customised value proposition for each individual is an added bonus. According to reports, though the average dabbawala has no formal education beyond class eight on an average, their work practices draw upon a 120-year old logistics system. That means the familiar workforce on Mumbai streets - for whom even the unruly Mumbai traffic stops to let pass - misses no more than one delivery in every 10 million.

Though the deal with the dabbawalas is to be an event-based deal, Reliance Money is also looking at alternate channels to sell its services. It has also tied up with coffee chain Barista, where each outlet has a trading kiosk. Many travel agencies (like Kuoni) as well as courier offices (like DTDC) too will distribute the company’s financial products.

Reliance Money is the electronic transaction platform associated with Reliance Capital, a private sector financial services companies.

Stronger rupee saves you from jitters of global gold price rise

2007-09-29T10:30:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: Rupee appreciation is helping the Indian consumer. While gold prices have touched the roof in the global markets, at home the
prices remained at the same level with Indian currency gaining strength.

As dollar continues to weaken against other currencies, gold prices have spurted to cross28-year-high of $750 per ounce. However, in the domestic market the price remained around Rs 9,500 per 10 gram. On Friday, it closed at Rs 9,595 per 10gram.

The Indian currency has appreciated by over 10% in the last one year against dollar. If this was not the case, the gold would have been quoted around Rs 10,500 per ten gram.

The price of gold is normally fixed in dollar-term. But as the US currency weakened against euro, yen and rupee, rise in prices in these currencies are relatively smaller than dollar. This drove the demand of the yellow metal in international markets.Americans are also buying
gold to hedge against dollar depreciation.

The investment in gold has given a return of 7% in rupee-term in last one month. Returns in the last three months, six months and 12 months
are 9.4%, 1.8% and 7.8%respectively. But, in dollar-term, the yellow metal has appreciated 30.5% in last one year. In other currencies,
return is on the lower side because of their appreciation against dollar. Return in euro on gold investment in last one year is 16%, in
pound 14.8% and in yen26.1%.

DSP Merrill Lynch gold fund, which invested in equities of global companies, that operate in gold, has appreciated by over 25% in rupee-term in the last one month, since it got listed on the stock exchange. Executive V-P Anup Maheshwari said the bull run of yellow metal will continue.

He said gold had crossed $ 750 per ounce in 1979 and if it is adjusted for inflation since then, the present price of the yellow metal should have been over $ 1,600per ounce.

Director and CEO of Reliance Money, Sudip Bandyopadhyay said demand for the yellow metal is on the upswing in the domestic market.

Rel Money eyes rural expansion

2007-05-01T13:39:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI: Reliance Money, the financial services firm from Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stable, has chalked out a detailed plan for a strong presence in the rural market that will compliment its plans for the urban markets.

Reliance Money aims to have its shops set up in over 5,000 subdivisions (also called tehesils) across India by the end of the current fiscal. And to help the company in selecting its franchisee partners in places not frequented by finance firms, it has tied up with Rural Relations, a firm that helps FMCG firms mass market their products in rural areas.

“Increasing distribution reach is crucial. Our tie-up with Rural Relations is one such relationship aimed at expanding our rural reach, said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director "> “Following some pre-defined criteria, people from this rural marketing company will identify prospective Reliance Money partners from each sub-division and send their details for further screening. Once the right candidate is selected, Reliance Money’s franchisee shop will be set up at that tehesil with help from Rural Relations,” he said.

Brokers reduce rates to fight Reliance Money

2006-11-16T11:30:00.000+05:30

AHMEDABAD: Reliance Money's foray into stock broking has set the cat
among borkerage pigeons, who are now slashing rates drastically to
fight the onslaught and stay afloat. Among other initiatives, it is the
pre-paid card concept from Reliance Money that is all set to
revolutionise stock broking activities.

The new wonder is Reliance Money's pre-paid card for stock market brokerage. Reliance Money, the financial services division of Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Group-promoted Reliance Capital, is bringing to the
market pre-paid cards in denominations of of Rs 500,Rs 1,350 and Rs
2,500 with validity period of two months, six months and twelvemonths
respectively.

These cards would offer brokerage at one-third of the rate being
charged by institutional and individual brokerage houses.Sample this.
For a pre-paid card worth Rs 500, an investor can trade upto Rs 90lakh
in futures and option segment or can undertake intra-day trade of
similar amount. Besides, an investor can undertake a delivery-based
activity of Rs 10lakh.

The Rs 1350 worth pre-paid card, total trading limit would reach Rs 3
crore, of which Rs 2.70 crore is for the F&O segment and balanceRs 30
lakh for delivery-based activities.

For Rs 2500 pre-paid card,total trading limit is fixed at Rs 16
crore, that include F&O limit of Rs15.40 crore and balance Rs 60 lakh
for delivery-based broking, says Jigar Bhatt of Times Commodity, a
franchisee of Reliance Money and has begun online trade.

For all categories,investor would have to pay Rs 12 for every
transaction. "We would not like to comment on this as we have not yet
finalised our offering," a Reliance Capital spokesperson said.

An electronic-code will be issued to investors purchasing pre-paid
card and all market related transactions will be done under this
e-code. The e-code can be used for both online and off-line trading in
the stock market. The broking fraternity feels that rates offered by
Reliance Moneyare competitive and may wean away high net worth
clientele from other institutional and individual brokerage houses.

Sensing a fierce rate-war in brokerage space, it's not only the
online broking service provider firms but local brokers too have begun
slashing rates to pre-empt Reliance Money from taking away their high
net worth clients.

"Local brokerages have begun reducing rates for delivery-based and
square-off based activities. For every Rs 100, brokerage for
delivery-based activities has gone down from 25paise to 10-15 paise.
For square off trade, rates are down to between one and two paise,"
says Atul Manhar of Kunvarjee Finstock.

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