India Infoline to double number of franchisees: Nirmal Jain

Financial services firm India Infoline today said it plans to begin mutual funds operations in the first quarter of the next fiscal, after securing final approval from capital market regulator, SEBI. "We have received the in-principle approval from Sebi (to set up the asset management company). The final approval is expected in the next 2-3 months," IIFL Chairman Nirmal Jain told reporters here.

IIFL plans to start AMC operations on its own but may look at the option of partnering with any existing player in the future, Jain said. At present, IIFL has operations in equity and derivative brokerage and investment management amongst others. The company is operating from 1,500 locations. It plans to increase the current branch strength, around 500 by 25-30 per cent over the next one year, while the number of franchise now at 1,000, will be doubled during the period.

Commenting on its mortgage business, Jain said the company has grown its mortgage business to a loan-book size of Rs 600 crore. "We now have a loan-book of Rs 600 crore. We are currently offering the loan products from 20 centres, which would be scaled to 40 over the next 3-4 months," Jain said. India Infoline has also received approval from the National Housing Bank to start a housing finance company, and expects to commence operations in the near future. Moving ahead, IIFL also plans to scale up its operations in Singapore and has applied for a 'securities licence' in the UK, Jain said.

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