• The daily average brokerage of Sharekhan rose by 9% in January 2021.
• The company’s market share surged by 23% in the currency market last month.
• New client additions rose by 10% month on month in the same period.
• The Do-It-Yourself and Business Partner channels contributed 30% and 14% more respectively to the new client base compared with December 2020.
• The customer base of our commodity broking business crossed 50,000 customers last month.
• Under the Front Foot Programme, the trailing 12-month active client count reached 656.5K in January 2021, breaking the previous month’s record of 632.5K.
• About 15.5K branch-mapped broking clients were reactivated as part of the Front Foot Programme in the same month.
• The inflows in mutual fund Systematic Investment Plans increased by 2.17% in January 2021 as against a 4.69% fall in the industry collection.
• We collected over Rs.15 crore in ICICI Prudential Business Cycle Fund last month, ranking second in the National Distributor segment in terms of collection.
• Auto-Pay mandate has been launched on Sharekhan App.
• eNACH registration cancellation journey is live on website and mobile application.
• The Loan Against Securities book grew by 13% month on month in January 2021.
• The revenue in terms of processing fees for LAS rose by 194% in the same month as compared with December 2020.
• Last month, the assets under management of our EMF business crossed Rs.300 crore for the first time in the history of the business.
• Sharekhan’s business profile has now been verified on Quora.
• We reconstituted the CSR Committee last month to give other Sherus a chance to pilot the company’s CSR agenda.

The first month of the new year is already over and I am happy to see that the business momentum of the last year has been maintained. The performance of the overall business was positive in January 2021. The announcement of the Union Budget for 2021-22 has given rise to a lot of hope and optimism. Investors have given a thumbs-up to the budget: On the day of the budget announcement, the two benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, rose by nearly 5% each vs about a 2% increase on an average day. The optimism seems broad-based and is fuelled by the hope of a financial recovery, given that the budget is focussed on rebuilding our economy, which suffered a huge setback due to the last year’s lockdown. This focus on economic growth will result in many money-making opportunities in the equity market and we should ensure that customers are able to benefit from the same. The lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected many people financially due to job losses, closing of businesses or heavy medical expenses last year. As a full-service broker, we offer a wide range of financial products and services, and are in a good position to help them. So encourage more people to invest this year. Use our offerings, experience and knowledge to help more people become financially stable and plan for emergencies like the pandemic.

The new year started on a positive note with the stock market indices gaining 5.5% from the close of December 2020. But the rally cooled off in the second half of the month on fears of imposition of additional cess in the budget and the indices dipped by 2.48% month on month. However, the daily average brokerage of the company increased by 9% during the month because of a rise in the market turnover across segments, especially an 18% surge in the futures & derivatives (F&O) segment. In addition, our market share in the F&O segment grew by 3% compared with December 2020. The growth in the market share was more pronounced in the currency market at 23%. We added 10% more new clients last month compared with December 2020 with the contributions of the Do-It-Yourself and Business Partner channels to the new client base showing an increase of 30% and 14% respectively over the previous month. We also achieved a milestone in the commodity broking business as we crossed 50,000 customers last month. That is a very good sign indicating our old customers are coming back. Let us bring all of them back and wow them with our products and services.

The Front Foot Programme recorded another month of growth. The trend of seeing new highs for the trailing 12-month (TTM) active client count continued in January 2021 as it touched 656.5K. The count is almost 24K higher compared with the previous month’s close of 632.5K. The programme facilitated the reactivation of almost 15.5K branch-mapped clients during the month. What’s more, the efforts of the Business Partner network resulted in the reactivation of another 6.7K clients in the same period. That’s a nice start to the year. A few big milestones are on our goal list for this year. My best wishes to the entire front-line team as well as our Business Partners for the continued success. Keep up the good work.

The mutual fund (MF) distribution business withstood the pressure of a downward trend in the stock market last month. Despite a 2.48% dip in the market, the MF assets under management (AUM) were only 1.27% lower at the end of the month. However positively, the inflows in Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) increased by 2.17% as against a 4.69% fall in the industry SIP collection. This increased our market share for SIP to 0.56% as against the CY2020 average of 0.48%. In January, we also participated in the hugely successful ICICI Prudential Business Cycle Fund, a new fund offering (NFO) that collected more than Rs.3,500 crore in all. We collected over Rs.15 crore in the NFO, ranking second in the National Distributor segment in terms of collection.

After launching Auto-Pay on the website last September, we rolled out the facility on the mobile application, Sharekhan App, last month. The facility has received an overwhelming response from customers. Approximately, 6,800 customers have registered for the Auto-Pay mandate with a registration value of Rs.15.6 crore since the launch till February 11, 2021 with the support of the Branch Network. The e-NACH (NACH stands for National Automated Clearing House) registration cancellation journey is also now live on the website and the mobile application, and customers can cancel their Auto-Pay mandate anytime if they wish. Overall, January was a productive month for the business and I congratulate the business and Branch Network teams for starting the year on a sound note. Hope to see the momentum continue through the year.

We ended January 2021 with a Loan Against Securities (LAS) book of Rs.369 crore, as LAS disbursements touched Rs.163 crore during the month. That is a growth of 13% month on month. In terms of channels, direct sales agents, Branch Network, Business Partners and ESOPs accounted for Rs.86 crore, Rs.230 crore, Rs.16 crore and Rs.37.58 crore respectively. I am happy to see that LAS is being promoted well by the entire Branch Network, more so by two clusters. The LAS book of the cluster led by Anahita Vora and that of the cluster led by Devangg Kamdar are both 12% bigger than the overall book size. In January, we also collected total processing fees of Rs.18 lakh. As a result, in the LAS business, our revenue in terms of processing fees rose by 194% in the month compared with December 2020.

Our Exchange Margin Funding (EMF) business has been doing very well since it recovered from the fall of April 2020. In January this year, the EMF AUM crossed Rs.300 crore for the first time in the history of the business and ended the month at over Rs.312 crore, up 24% month on month. On a year-on-year basis, the EMF book shows a growth of about 54% as on January 1, 2021. The business was well covered in the January 2021 edition of the Sharekhan Times. I hope the coverage has raised awareness about the product among the staff and will lead to more business. We are aiming for AUM of Rs.500 crore this year and I will not be surprised if we achieve the target ahead of time.

I am happy to share that Sharekhan’s business profile on Quora has now been verified by the leading social media platform. We are expanding our followers and presence on social media and Quora's verification is the newest feather in our cap. Quora, the world’s leading online question-and-answer platform, is the go-to site for many people looking for reliable information on our company, products, competitors or industry. Plus, Quora pages consistently rank highly in Google searches and are displayed on the first page of the results. In fact, oftentimes, a Quora page is the number one result.

So the Quora verification is a big deal. It recognises Sharekhan as a reputed business entity and inspires trust in our brand as the blue verified business icon (ie a blue suitcase) is not broadly available and we are one of the few banking, financial service and insurance brands to have received it. It also identifies our business profile on the platform as authentic, thereby preventing malicious attempts by individuals to impersonate our business. In addition, it will direct prospects and customers searching about Sharekhan or broking to our Quora profile, leading to better brand visibility. Not only that, it will also help amplify Sharekhan’s voice in social media by encouraging users to share our branded contents on the other social media platforms. I congratulate the Social Media team for doing a good job of making Sharekhan highly visible in social media.

We reconstituted the CSR Committee last month to allow other Sherus a chance to drive the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. In Sharekhan, CSR and business go hand in hand and this was evident in full measure last year when Sherus from across the country participated in virtual volunteering activities in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year too we hope to do our best to give back to society. The BNP Paribas Group has already pledged to volunteer one million hours of the Group employees’ collective working hours in 2021 to support the communities in which all Group entities operate. Last year, Sharekhan was one of the biggest contributors to #OneMillionHoursToHelp in the territory and I hope we will break our own record this year. I congratulate the new members of the CSR Committee and look forward to hearing some new ideas and plans from them. The CSR calendar for February 2021 has already been announced. Go ahead, avail of your CSR leave to do some safe volunteering work this year too and make a difference to those in need of support.

The number of COVID-19 active cases has been consistently declining and hopes are rising on the vaccine front. But until the threat of COVID-19 completely disappears, I urge you to continue to follow all lockdown rules and the norms of personal safety and social distancing, whether you are working from home or office locations. Stay safe and continue to take care of your loved ones. Hopefully, we have left the worst of the pandemic behind and the situation will continue to improve this year. Let us stay connected virtually till we meet face to face again.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Jaideep Arora