The Hindu Business Line : Geojit BNP Paribas to expand global footprint

Kochi March 14 With BNP Paribas becoming the single largest stakeholder, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd is poised to expand its footprint across the world.

"Countries in West Asia, US and Europe that have a large expatriate Indian population are the natural market for Geojit to expand its global reach," Mr C.J. George, Managing Director of Geojit BNP Paribas told Business Line.

To start with the company plans to look afresh at the US and UK markets. Though the regulatory regime is very hard to crack in these markets, the association with BNP Paribas is expected to prove helpful in overcoming the complex regulatory norms, Mr George said.

With the significant presence of the global banking major in countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar etc. several high net worth individual bank customers are expected to add business volumes to Geojit BNP Paribas from these markets.

Addressing a press conference in Kochi last night, Mr Olivier Le Grand, Head of BNP Paribas Personal Investors said: "With this strategic cross continental partnership, we will capitalise on Geojit BNP Paribas strong experience in brokerage and asset gathering to accelerate development and generate synergies in fast growing markets."

The synergy would also be reflected in growing business of Geojit BNP Paribas, as greater volume of FII business is transacted through the broking company. In this regard, Mr Le Grand specifically cited the instance of several Japanese FIIs seeking fresh inroads into the Indian markets.

BNP Paribas is reported to have strong business relationships with a large number of FIIs from Hong Kong as well as several European countries.

Opening up new geographic frontiers, Mr Le Grand invited Geojit BNP Paribas to start operations in countries like Mexico and Poland. While BNP Paribas Bank has a presence in 85 countries BNP Paribas Personal Investors has strong presence in continental Europe.

While Mr Olivier Le Grand, Mr Federic Amoudru, Chief Executive and Country Head of BNP Paribas India and Mr Rousseau, Head BNP Paribas Securities, Asia will be coming on to the Board of Geojit BNP Paribas through this investment, Mr C.J. George will be going on the Board of BNP Paribas Personal Investors services worldwide.

Though by acquiring 34.35 per cent stake BNP Paribas has become the largest single stakeholder in the company, the aggregate holding some of the promoters, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, Mr C.J. George and Mr Rakesh Junjunwalah still add up to over 40 per cent. However, if BNP Paribas aggressively pursues the 20 per cent open offer, the single largest shareholder could very well gain controlling stake in the company on its own.

Some analysts were of the opinion that this is quite unlikely at this juncture.