Skip to main content

Diversification helps brokers tide volatility

Despite the volatility in the equity market, shares of brokerage firms that have diversified their business model have rallied handsomely in the past year. Shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Edelweiss Financial Services and IIFL Holdings have all doubled in the past one year against the Sensex´s 23 per cent gain.
These firms have benefited from the thematic rally in stocks of nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) for most of last year.
For these entities, broking activities are no longer the mainstay as they have diversified into lending, private wealth management, asset management and even insurance.
For instance, the contribution of the capital markets business for IIFL in the overall profit pie (profit before tax or PBT) fell to 13 per cent in FY16 from 21 per cent in FY15, and further to eight per cent in the nine months ended December 2016.
For Motilal Oswal Financial Services, revenues from the capital market business declined to 38 per cent in Q3 FY17 from 46 per centayear ago. On the other hand, revenues from housing finance grew to 33 per cent from 21 per cent in the same period.

“Our strategy to transform the business model is showing results, as our revenues and profits are now wellbalanced between asset management, housing finance and capital markets businesses,” said Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

In the broking business, the company maintained its market share in the highyield cash segment as it continued to add retail clients atahealthy run rate. Asset mobilisation continued atavery strong pace.

The expansion of the housing finance network and the loan book is going according to plan, Oswal adds.

Shares of brokers such as Geojit BNP Paribas and Emkay Global Financial Services, which are not as diversified, have risen 35 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.

Brokers, in general, have been hit hard by dwindling cash market volumes, which used to provideasizeable portion of their revenues before the global financial crisis in 2008.

The rise of discount brokers have also put pressure on margins.

Most discount brokers chargeaflat fee of Rs.20 per trade.

Fullservice brokers charge between 10 -30 paisa for delivery trades, while they charge 1 -2 paisa for the F&Osegment, per Rs.100 of trade.

“Only those brokers who can offerabouquet of services under one roof, which includes credible research and advisory, wealth management as well as maintainastrong lending book, will survive,” saidGChokkalingam, founder, Equinomics Research and Advisory.
Business Standard New Delhi,20th February 2017

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RBI deputy governor cautions fintech platform lenders on privacy concerns during loan recovery

  India's digital lending infrastructure has made the loan sanctioning system online. Yet, loan recovery still needs a “feet on the street” approach, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said at a media event on Tuesday, September 2, according to news agency ANI.According to the ANI report, the deputy governor flagged that fintech operators in the digital lending segment are giving out loans to customers with poor credit profiles and later using aggressive recovery tactics.“While loan sanctioning and disbursement have become increasingly digital, effective collection and recovery still require a 'feet on the street' and empathetic approach. Many fintech platforms operate on a business model that involves extending small-value loans to customers often with poor credit profiles,” Swaminathan J said.   Fintech platforms' business models The central bank deputy governor highlighted that many fintech platforms' business models involve providing sm

Credit card spending growth declines on RBI gaze, stress build-up

  Credit card spends have further slowed down to 16.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY25), following the Reserve Bank of India’s tightening of unsecured lending norms and rising delinquencies, and increased stress in the portfolio.Typically, during the festival season (September–December), credit card spends peak as several credit card-issuing banks offer discounts and cashbacks on e-commerce and other platforms. This is a reversal of trend in the past three financial years stretching to FY21 due to RBI’s restrictions.In the previous financial year (FY24), credit card spends rose by 27.8 per cent, but were low compared to FY23 which surged by 47.5 per cent. In FY22, the spending increased 54.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Macquarie Research.ICICI Bank recorded 4.4 per cent gross credit losses in its FY24 credit card portfolio as against 3.2 per cent year-on-year. SBI Cards’ credit losses in the segment stood at 7.4 per cent in FY24 and 6.2 per cent in FY23, the rep

India can't rely on wealthy to drive growth: Ex-RBI Dy Guv Viral Acharya

  India can’t rely on wealthy individuals to drive growth and expect the overall economy to improve, Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday.Acharya, who is the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern), said after the Covid-19 pandemic, rural consumption and investments have weakened.We can’t be pumping our growth through the rich and expect that the economy as a whole will do better,” he said while speaking at an event organised by Elara Capital here.f there has to be a trickle-down, it should have actually happened by now,” Acharya said, adding that when the rich keep getting wealthier and wealthier, they have a savings problem.   “The bank account keeps getting bigger, hence they look for financial assets to invest in. India is closed, so our money can't go outside India that easily. So, it has to chase the limited financial assets in the country and