Web Trading through ICICI
Ratan:Speaking of ICICI check this out, says they are introducing WEB TRADE.
21-12-1999 21:23:28
Web trading through ICICI
ICICI Web Trade, a subsidiary of ICICI Ltd, will launch a product to enable stocks trading and other instruments on the Internet within 8-12 weeks, its chief executive officer said today. "The regulator has indicated that in January they will be ready for announcing it (Internet stock trading)...as the regulator announces it, we would be ready for a beta launch," K.V. Kamath, who is also the managing director of ICICI, told Reuters in an interview.
Kamath described stocks trading as ICICI`s hottest product and said the group would reap strong benefits from it. "We have a unique advantage in web trading...if we work synergistically, we have a group bank which will be holding accounts and the web trade company has execution capability." Kamath said no other company in India had all these advantages together. The Securities and Exchange Board of India last week set conditions for routing of stock buying and selling orders on the Internet.
Meanwhile, ICICI Ltd is investing Rs1bn to pick up a 40% stake in the garments business of denim and cotton textiles maker Arvind Mills Ltd, an Arvind spokesman said today.
No comments on reports: Kamath declined to comment on newspaper reports of ICICI Bank making an acquisition, but said a strategic fit was likely. This will enable the bank to increase its number of outlets in the shortest possible time, he said. "You have physical limitations in terms of number of branches that you can open every year because of regulatory constraints," he said. "The only way to grow fast to the required number is through strategic fits on the brick and mortar side," Kamath said.
Local newspapers have mentioned ICICI Bank as being in talks to acquire another bank. Speculation of likely mergers among India`s private banks has risen since last month when HDFC Bank announced a merger with another local private bank, Times Bank. Kamath said mergers and acquisitions of physical assets of a bank would not provide as much scope for expansion as growth coming through technological advancements like the Internet. "At some stage, the market will ask a question -- Is there any logic in the consolidation of bricks?"
Kamath said ICICI Bank had enabled itself faster growth through technology by its tie-up with Satyam Infoway last week. ICICI Bank entered into an on-line joint venture with India`s first private internet firm which was aimed at pooling their strengths in a "clicks-and-bricks" alliance.
(Source: Reuters via Probity) |
