Dear Sheru,

Hope you and your family are safe in these difficult times. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has been more devastating for the Sharekhan family. I know of Sherus who are dealing with personal tragedies, I offer to them my deepest sympathies. At the last count, 82 Sherus were themselves infected, I wish them all a speedy recovery. I want you all to know that I and my co-directors stand with you and are here to help you.

I also want to mention and recognise the service of the Administration, Human Resources (HR), IT and all other teams who are working relentlessly to help the rest of the staff in these challenging times, putting their personal difficulties aside. You are all setting an extraordinary example of commitment, professionalism and solidarity.

Most of all, I thank all Sherus for showing great patience, resilience and dedication in these incredibly difficult circumstances. It is thanks to your efforts and hard work, that we are able to provide uninterrupted service and support to our customers and clients for whom the environment is no less difficult. It is truly my honour to be part of an organisation that deeply cares for its staff, customers and clients.

Before we take a look at the business performance in April, here are the highlights of the month.

• The trailing 12-month active client count reached 703K in April 2021.
• About 8.8K branch-mapped broking clients were reactivated as part of the Front Foot Programme in the last month.
• Our mutual fund assets under management crossed Rs.4,851 crore last month.
• Sharekhan was the largest contributor to the BNP Paribas Aqua Fund of Fund, contributing Rs.30 crore to the NFO whose total collections stood at Rs.80 crore.
• The EMF business grew by ~9% month on month in April, with the EMF AUM touching Rs.438 crore by the end of the month.
• Sharekhan Research Podcasts was launched last month to offer research advice in byte-sized format.
• The count of Sharekhan’s followers on YouTube has crossed 50,000.
• Sharekhan celebrated Mobility Weeks successfully in the second half of April with Sherus participating in large numbers in the virtual events organised by the HR team.
• The HR team rolled out two critical surveys in April to understand the vaccination status of Sherus and their opinion on Sharekhan’s conduct and speak-up culture.

In broking, we achieved another milestone as the trailing 12-month active client count crossed 700,000 in April 2021 — for the first time in Sharekhan’s history. The daily average revenue recovered in April after a 12% drop in March and grew by 1% month on month (MoM). The growth could have been higher as we also gained 9% market share in the futures & options segment compared with the previous month. But the market share gain was offset by a 7% month-on-month loss of market share in the cash segment in the same period. Plus, due to a spate of public holidays and reduced spending on lead generation, new client additions declined by 32% in April compared with the previous month. The retail participation was also lower last month — client activity dipped by 6% MoM — which also contributed to the lower revenue growth. I understand the business environment remains difficult and appreciate the efforts of all Sherus to provide uninterrupted service to our customers and clients, and grow the business.

The Front Foot Programme (FFP) had another month of growth. As a result, the trend of seeing new highs for the trailing 12-month (TTM) active client count continued in April, with the count reaching 703K. The FFP facilitated the reactivation of almost 8.8K branch-mapped clients during the month. What’s more, the efforts of the franchisee network resulted in the reactivation of another 3.3K clients in the same period. Reactivations are also good for revenue. Close to 5.4% of the clients who got reactivated in April also traded in futures and options. A large proportion of the reactivated clients have continued to conduct more than just one or two transactions. Almost 49% of the clients reactivated in April have carried out three or more transactions already. A few big initiatives and projects are in the offing in the next couple of months to increase the number of reactivations, you will hear about them in due course. My best wishes to the entire front-line team as well as our Business Partners for the continued success. Keep up the good work.

Our mutual fund assets under management (AUM) crossed Rs.4,851 crore in April 2021 with gross inflow of Rs.205 crore and strong net positive inflow of Rs.36 crore during the month, touching levels last seen in July 2020. With the collective efforts of all channels, Sharekhan emerged as the largest contributor to the BNP Paribas Aqua Fund of Fund, a new fund offering (NFO), contributing Rs.30 crore to the fund whose total collections stood at Rs.80 crore. (Sharekhan’s contribution to the fund will be reflected in the performance of May.) Our collections in Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) dipped by 3.5% in April to Rs.46.26 crore but our SIP performance was still better than the industry’s as the SIP collection at industry level dropped by 6.4% in the same month.

The AUM of our Exchange Margin Funding (EMF) business climbed up to Rs.438 crore MoM in March 2021. The EMF business showed a growth of about 9% last month compared with March 2021. Notably, our Branch Network contributed almost 70% of the total funding with the rest coming from the Business Partners. At this rate, we will soon achieve our target of Rs.500 crore AUM for this year. Keep it up, the front-line and EMF teams!

Continuing with our efforts to innovate and launch new things, we rolled out Sharekhan Research Podcasts on April 5, 2021. Six teams including the Research, Advisory, Content, Video, Brand & Communications and Social Media collaborated to create this product, which delivers our research to customers and prospects in a byte-sized format. The idea is to promote Sharekhan’s full-service offerings among the new-to-investing prospects in a style they prefer as well as help our existing customers by offering research in a shorter easier-to-consume format. The regular podcasts on various research topics are available on YouTube and Anchor social media platforms. I congratulate the entire Research team led by Sanjeev Hota; Sushma Shetty, Tyron Varghese and Rahul Jakharia from Advisory; Aditya Nair from Content; Rohan Vanmala, Rohit Shashtri and Ventatesh Lutikurthi from Video Communication; Abhigyan Anand from Brand & Communication; and Parimal Khardenavis and Shikhar Jiwrajka from Social Media for great team work and wish the new product all success.

Sharekhan leads the banking, financial service and insurance industry when it comes to digital and social media marketing. We have been generating a good level of engagement by offering useful information on social media through video and podcasts for the past few years. Recently, focussed and consistent promotion of 3R Research Actionable Update and Weekly Market Guide increased our reach on YouTube. YouTube, Google’s popular video platform, is used by investors and traders to find the latest or detailed information on economy, stock market, individual stocks, research, sectors etc.

Prompt and extensive sharing of these contents through Sharekhan’s Social Media WhatsApp broadcast groups and with the Branch Network groups combined with the other ongoing social media posts and campaigns has helped us increase the count of our YouTube subscribers which crossed 50,000 last month, up a good 13.4%. The growth remains strong as we are adding more followers every day.

The latest social media milestone will help boost Sharekhan’s brand image online and encourage more people to seek our content on YouTube to learn about investing and trading, and then to open a trading account with us. I appreciate the efforts of all Sherus who are behind this achievement and congratulate everyone. Sharekhan ko social media mein follow kar, Sharekhan kar!

The second edition of Mobility Weeks in Sharekhan celebrated from April 19 to 30 was a huge success. Organised by the HR team in collaboration with the Territory team, the virtual event saw a large number of Sherus participating in virtual events like talk shows, experience sharing events etc. The events were very informative in which senior leaders from across the BNP Paribas entities in India shared their experience of mobility, talked about the benefits of mobility and answered frequently asked questions on mobility among other things. I congratulate the HR team for raising awareness about workplace mobility among the staff of Sharekhan through well organised programmes. Keep it up.

The HR team rolled out two surveys in April, the COVID-19 Vaccination Status Survey and Sharekhan Staff Pulse Survey #1. The first survey invited Sherus to share their COVID-19 vaccination status so that we can completely understand our preparedness to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second survey, Sherus were encouraged to share their views on the conduct and speak-up culture of Sharekhan so that we can understand the areas of opportunities and continue to make desired improvements to enrich our conduct culture.

I hope all Sherus participated in the two surveys. As a communication platform surveys are very important as these allow all staff to voice their opinion freely and express their true thoughts on critical subjects related to work. At the same time, survey findings help the management to understand the pulse of the staff on critical topics like employee satisfaction, communication, work environment and relationships; identify areas of opportunities; and make improvements. If for some reason you could not participate in these surveys, you still have time to do so. We have extended the deadline for both surveys to May 31, 2021. I expect to see full participation in the two surveys. What’s more, I will also strongly recommend you participate in all other surveys that the HR team may conduct in future.

Vaccination is on in full swing even as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the country. Clearly, we are not out of the woods yet. That is why we all must continue to follow all COVID-19 protocols. Maintain social distancing; wear a mask; stay indoors as much as possible; wash your hands frequently; keep rooms well-ventilated; and cough away from others into your elbow to stay safe. The management is closely monitoring the situation. Our top priority at this hour remains the health and safety of our staff. My co-directors and I have called an Open House today at 4.30pm to update you on our response to the crisis, I invite you to join the virtual event. We look forward to seeing you and answering your questions.

Thank you once again. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Stay safe.

Best regards,
Jaideep Arora