The largest French bank, BNP Paribas SA, is planning to up stake by more than 50% in retail brokerage Geojit Financial Services by next year, Bloomberg. BNP Paribas also expects Geojit, in which it holds a 34% stake, to make money in 2009, added the report quoting Olivier Le Grand, head of BNP Paribas Personal Investors.
Geojit recently reported a decline in its fourth quarter results, for which its revenues fell from Rs 64.08 crore to Rs 48.8 crore. For the fiscal year, revenues fell by 19.69% from Rs 238.31 crore to Rs 191.38 crore.
Last week, Geojit Financial Services announced a change in name to Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. This comes after BNP's open offer for the firm. Geojit and BNP Paribas have also recently launched brokerage services for institutional investors. Kochi-based Geojit BNP
Paribas has a network of 500 branches.
BNP Paribas bought a 27 percent stake in Geojit in 2007 for $46 million and recently concluded its open offer. BNP has a mutual fund venture with Sundaram Mutual called Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual. BNP has also recently launched a Middle East and North Africa private
equity fund, which it plans to close by June.
