Nearly 19 months after it bought nearly 100 per cent stake in UK-based Dawnay

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Day’s financial services business in India, the Indian-subcontinent-focused private equity firm New Silk Route (NSR) is in the process of building a “very robust retail platform” through a slew of alliances.

“We are well and truly into the journey. Our aim is to try and create a strong distribution platform for financial services products across middle India,” said Anand Dorairaj, partner, NSR Growth Capital, told FC. NSR, which has invested a little over one-third of its $1.4 billion assets under management in about 11 companies, is confident of making Destimoney a strong distribution-led financial services company in five-six years.

After its acquisition in August 2008, all group companies have been renamed ‘Destimoney’ and the company is in the process of being reorganised under a single holding company – Destimoney Enterprises.

The NSR partner did not disclose the size of the Dawnay Day deal, but added that most media reports indicated a much higher figure.

In addition to retail broking, the Mumbai-based retail financial services company, offers third-party financial products (life and general insurance, mutual funds and loans, among others) through a network of over 130 branches in major metro cities and tier-II/III towns across India.

“Destimoney is focusing on products and building the team,” Dorairaj said, adding the company will also go in for alliances to sell products. Recently, it entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with private sector lender Dhanalakshmi Bank to provide online trading and investment services to the bank’s customers.

Similarly, Destimoney bought 49 per cent stake in home lender PNB Home

Finance for about Rs 250-300 crore, in a two-stage investment.

Another key area where Destimoney is concentrating on is on building a strong team. “The senior management is practically new,” said Dorairaj.Vivek Vig is the managing director and group chief executive officer. He was previously the country head of Centurion Bank of Punjab. Saurabh Shukla, who was former group chief operating officer of Bonanza, has joined as chief executive officer, broking. Brijesh Parnami, director, retail distribution, also joined from Centurion Bank of Punjab. K Giri, who was with Dawnay Day, is the group chief financial officer.

rajeshabraham

@mydigitalfc.com