Investments Plans Rs 75 Crore Ipo, Seeks Pd Status

The exact size of the IPO has not been finalised. It is likely to be between Rs 50-75 crore.

Investsmart also plans to set up a fund management arm in Mauritius to cater to non-resident Indian clients and has applied for the necessary approvals.

"We see a customer base of at least 700-1000 customers soon after we kick off operations," said Hemang Raja, managing director, Investsmartindia. He explained that customers were mainly expected from areas of heavy NRI concentration like the Middle East, London and Singapore.

Investsmart has also applied to the Reserve Bank of India for a primary dealer (PD) licence and will also go in for retailing corporate debentures to its customers.

Raja said the main aim of the company in applying for a PD licence was to enable retail customers to access the government securities market. "We want the customer to be able to buy and hold government securities with as few intermediaries between him and the market as possible."

"We also plan to market corporate debentures to the retail customer. Brokers in general find it uneconomic to cater to retail customers because of the comparatively small size of transactions but we feel that there is a market there," said Raja.

The company has also signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Globeshare.com, the online trading arm of Laidlaw Global Corporation which spans across stockmarkets in various countries. With a single Globeshare.com trading account, investors can transact stocks in any market around the world with whom globeshare has a tie up. With the alliance, international investors can access the Indian markets through investsmart India.