By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Doha Brokerage & Financial Services Limited (DBFS), an associate of Doha Bank headquartered in Qatar, is all set to enter the non-banking financial company (NBFC) operations in India soon.
Addressing reporters here Saturday, K.V. Samuel, vice-chairman of DBFS and senior manager treasury and investment of Doha Bank, said the Reserve Bank of India had given them the licence to go ahead.
“We will launch our operations in the country in the NBFC sector in two months time. At the moment we are not interested in soliciting deposits, instead we will enter the lucrative consumer and housing loan segment. For this, Doha Bank will pump in $50 million as capital funding,” said Samuel.
In May last year, Doha Bank entered the Indian brokerage industry with a strategic investment in Investnet, an India-based brokerage company.
Doha Bank took over by taking 49 percent equity in Select Securities Ltd, the holding company for Select Group of companies, which owns the brokerage network under the brand name Investnet.
Since then, the new entity was re-christened DBFS. It has 140 branches across the country, with a large number in south India. In Kerala alone, it has 60 branches.
“We are expanding hugely and opening another 150 branches soon. In a short period of time we will come out with lucrative investment avenues for the large number of Indian diaspora, especially in the Middle-East, who do not have safe and sufficient investment avenues,” said Prince George, managing director and CEO of DBFS.
This is the first time that a Middle-East-headquartered bank is entering into the NBFC sector in the country.
“By early next year, DBFS will launch an asset management company. We have finalised our association with the Tata Asset Management Company to launch the India Growth Fund. We target Rs.500 crores (Rs.5 billion) and this would be open to the diaspora as well. A portion of this would be invested in the capital market and the rest in specific projects in the country,” added Samuel.