Edelweiss courts retail despite slump

It must be the bad times to start a brokerage business. But Rashesh Shah, chairman and managing director of Edelweiss Capital does not think so. Notwithstanding the economic recession swept away investors' confidence to put money into equities, leading domestic brokerage firm Edelweiss Capital is planning roll out its retail brokerage services in the current financial year.

"Yes, we are going ahead with the plans and are planning to start our retail brokerage business by the end of this fiscal," said Rashesh Shah. "We know its a bad time, but I believe bad time is the best time to start a business."

Edelweiss currently has a strong foothold in the institutional brokerage and investment banking. It recently got approval to start mutual fund business. Edelweiss gains over 50 per cent of its revenues from broking and investment banking, while the remaining comes from consumer finance business and alternate asset management business.

The company plans to start its own centers across various parts of the country. "We have already started a pilot project. We are waiting for the results," Shah said. The domestic retail broking market is valued over Rs 11,000 crore. "Even a small market share would help us to survive in this bad market and we will be able to scale it up," Shah said.

The financial crisis brought down the equity markets in a major way. The Sensex (^BSESN : 16632.01 -222.92) plunged half since the beginning of the year and retail investors started shying away from the volatile market. Brokers and traders say the daily trading volume have come down over 50 per cent since the beginning of the year.