Since the time Reliance Industries announced it would list its financial services undertaking Jio Financial Services Limited on the stock markets last month, the Paytm stock felt the jitters, diving to its record low. The company’s shares fell 11% on BSE to close trading at Rs 475 apiece. Why did this happen?
Well, investors anticipate a huge disruption for the Noida-headquartered Paytm. A global financial services group, Macquarie sees Jio Financial Services becoming India’s fifth-largest financial services firm. HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank are the four top companies in the business. JFS has significant scope to expand its balance sheet. “Assuming 6.1% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd realised over time, with a Rs 1 trillion net worth, JFS could be the 5th largest financial services firm in the country,” said Suresh Ganapathy, Aditya Suresh, and Param Subramanian in the report.
The investor interest in Reliance had already increased manifold when RIL announced on 21 October that it planned to undo the merger of its financial services undertaking into Reliance Strategic Investments Ltd (RSIL) and rename it Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL), which will be listed on the stock exchanges.
Increasing the woes of Paytm, Macquarie reported today that Jio Financial Services had plans to launch a consumer and merchant lending business based on proprietary data analytics to complement and supplement the traditional credit bureau-based underwriting. Macquarie said the focus seems to be on consumer and merchant lending, which is the mainstay of NBFCs like Bajaj Finance and fintech firms like Paytm. Today, this Macquarie report made Paytm’s shares fall 11% on BSE to close trading at Rs 475 apiece.
The Reliance firm can disrupt the payments business and become a threat to other fintech models, said the Macquarie report.
RSIL is a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL and an RBI-registered non-deposit-taking systemically important non-banking financial company (NBFC). “With secular growth drivers, the Indian financial services sector is poised to undergo a digital transformation. The sector presents a large, under-penetrated and growing addressable market, especially for retail and small business-focused product categories. JFSL and its subsidiaries will leverage the technology capability of Reliance and focus on digital delivery of financial products to democratise financial services access for 1.4 billion Indians,” said RIL in a stock exchange filing in October.
“Reliance has been developing and fostering a vibrant digital led-financial services platform through various digital applications. Reliance has developed best-in-class applications having high customer engagement metrics and differentiated value propositions in their respective categories. The current footprint touches more than 20 million consumers. JFS plans to launch a consumer and merchant lending business based on proprietary data analytics to complement and supplement the traditional credit bureau-based underwriting. JFS will continue to evaluate organic growth, joint-venture partnerships as well as inorganic opportunities in insurance, asset management and digital broking segments,” RIL said.
You must log in to post a comment.