Sharekhan to enter discount broking biz

Hyderabad: Sharekhan, full-service equity brokerage owned by French financial services major BNP Paribas, is getting into discount broking with a separate brand, the details of which will be announced at the formal launch shortly.

Sharekhan, founded in 2000 by the Mumbai-based entrepreneur Shripal Morakhia, whose family was into equity broking for decades, was one of the first standalone brokerages in the country and was backed by bulge bracket private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic. BNP Paribas bought out the promoters and these investors in July 2015 and today, it is the third-largest brokerage with over 20 lakh customers.

Discount broking has been gaining ground and the segment is led by players like Zerodha and 5paise, and this segment has about 30 lakh customers. The country is among the lowest when it comes to retail investors whose number is around 4 crore only while the opportunity is 10 crore.