How few financial cos navigated so far, when for everyone else, the future is uncertain
The universal bank business is going out of fashion in the US where it first took root. Sandy Weill's concept was adopted well by ICICI and HDFC in the '90s. Others like Edelweiss & IIFL are making small, brave attempts in the field. ET shows how they have navigated so far, though the future, like for everyone else, remains uncertain. IIFL Holdings Year of commencement: 1995 Starting capital Few lakhs Current market cap: Rs 9,000 cr Sweetest memory: Response to IPO Event to forget: 2001-03 Technology bubble burst and Ketan Parekh scam There can be many claimants for revolutionising online retail broking in India, but none can take credit away from Nirmal Jain and R Venkataraman of IIFL Holdings. When stock brokers were ripping off clients with 2 or even 3 percent commission, IIFL dared to launch trade at 5 paise when even coins of that denomination were going out of circulation. It is a different story that many mom-and-pop brokerages perished, but the world of stock broking was transformed for ever. What started as a boutique research firm, IIFL Holdings is today an emerging multi-product financial conglomerate with interests from broking to insurance to private equity, leaving the first love of Jain - equity research - way behind in terms of revenues. The financially inclined Jain, like many other IIM graduates, took up a job with a stock broker and set up its research unit. By 1995, the inflows from foreign investors became a steady stream from just being droplets during the early reforms years....14-09-2016