Axis Bank intends to create a financial services powerhouse with Enam that would offer a ‘suite’ of products to customers. Axis Bank’s current tie-up with Geojit will soon be phased out
There’s a hot race on in the online broking space and Axis Bank has just announced its grandiose plans for this business, with a clean swoop of the highly respected Enam Securities brand. Under the merger, Enam will spin-off its investment banking, institutional equities and retail equities businesses to Axis Securities, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axis Bank.
Axis Bank already has a tie-up with brokerage firm Geojit BNP Paribas, under which the bank’s customers are provided the facility of a 3-in-1 account (trading account integrated with bank and demat account) that is powered by Geojit. This platform enjoys considerable patronage in the retail segment, supported by the fact that Geojit was the first to provide online trading services in India. However, with the Axis Bank-Enam merger, Geojit will eventually cease to offer its services under the Axis brand. A senior Axis Bank official told Moneylife, “We will look to phase out the tie-up with Geojit gradually. Of course, we will give our customers the option to switch over to Enam or to stay put with Geojit. It is completely up to them to decide”.
Another official from Geojit told Moneylife that this does not make much difference to the company. “Axis Bank had already taken a membership with the exchanges earlier this year. So this move was already on the cards. Anyway, it constitutes a very small portion of our total income. They will likely offer the choice to their customers. Ultimately, the customer has to make the choice.”
Enam, which is credited for pioneering equity research in the country, enjoys much of its strong reputation for its corporate business. Acknowledging Enam’s brand value, Shikha Sharma, managing director and CEO of Axis Bank said, “We are excited at the prospect of building on Enam’s enviable reputation for bringing new companies to the market and for its deep and long-lasting relationship with corporate houses, as well as with institutional and individual investors, that have benefited from their services over the years.”
When asked about the guarantee that the considerable goodwill enjoyed by Enam would get transferred to Axis Bank, Ms Sharma said, “This was a subject of a lot of conversation on the board. You can only do so much financial planning. This stuff happens only when two people want to work together. We believe that there are significant synergies, negligible overlaps and a strong cultural fit between the two organisations, which will stand us in good stead.”
The race for providing online trading platforms has been on for quite some time, with various brokerage houses doing all they can to woo traders to trade more, with lots of bells and whistles. ICICIdirect launched a new platform ‘TradeRacer’ earlier in the year and Geojit BNP Paribas followed with its enhanced online trading platform ‘FLIP’ (Financial Investment Platform). Although Enam offers an online trading platform ‘ENAMdirect’ for retail investors, its presence in this segment is limited. However, Ms Sharma indicated yesterday that Axis Bank intends to create the online retail trading platform from scratch and that it will be called ‘Axisdirect’. —Moneylife Digital Team