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K.R. Srivats

New Delhi, Feb. 4 Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd (FICCL), a financial services company, may tie up with mutual fund houses to distribute mutual fund products through its branch network, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director, Mr G.S. Sundararajan, has said.

“We are planning to add 300 more branches in the calendar year 2008. We will distribute third party mutual fund products through our branch network. This is expected to happen from the last quarter (October-December) this year,” Mr Sundararajan told Business Line.

He said that mutual funds as a product was, till few years ago, “not really high” in the hierarchy of the needs of middle and low income earners. However, with salary increases seen in the economy in last two to three years, mutual funds have emerged among the top need for such people, Mr Sundararajan said.

Currently, Fullerton India has 500 branches across 215 cities of the country. The company aims to emerge as a single-window provider of financial services and may look at lot more liability products in the coming days.

Mr Sundararajan also said that FICCL, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fullerton Financial Holdings, Singapore, may soon draw about $100 million from its parent to fund its expansion. “We already have approvals for $300 million, of which $200 million has been brought into India and used in our operations here. We will draw down the remaining soon,” he said.

He also indicated that FICCL may foray into rural areas from early next year. “It would be a pan-India offering for the rural segment. We will this year do pilots across the country to understand the regional nuance of the market. We will start rolling out products early next year for rural segment. So far, we have been focusing on middle and low income customers in urban and semi-urban markets only,” Mr Sundararajan said.

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