Reliance Money gears up to start services in Bahrain, Oman

Dubai, Feb 12 (UNI) Reliance Money, a subsidiary of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's Reliance Capital Ltd, today said it is planning to commence its financial services in the entire Gulf region, especially Bahrain, Oman and Qatar in the next one year.

''We are gearing up to enter the markets of Bahrain, Oman and Qatar in the next 6-12 months,'' Reliance Money Director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters here while offering its financial services for the first time outside India here.

Indian brokerage firms are increasingly looking at tapping the overseas market, taking into account the health of the capital markets and the intensity of competition among the brokerage companies.

The Indian retail brokerage market is showing phenomenal growth and is expected to reach 6,535.7 billion dollars by 2015.

However, analyst feel competition in the domestic market and lucrative business oppurtunity in West Asia is increasingly luring companies to expand services abroad.

Though the Indian brokerage industry has been consolidating steadily over the last 10 years, the share of the top 10 brokers has risen to only around one-fourth of the total industry revenues.

In this fragmented market, leading players like ICICI Direct, Kotak Securities, Indiabulls, Relaince Money and Sharekhan.

Mr Bandyopadhyay said the company would prefer to go for the local partners to initiate its services in the countries.

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