After Economic Times launched its financial distribution business called ET Money, Pune-based AP Globale has forayed into mutual fund and insurance distribution business by launching Sakal Money. AP Globale is the parent company of the Sakal Media Group.
Sharing the rationale for this move, Sanjay Gupta, CFO – AP Globale & CEO – Sakal Money said that the media house aims to reach out to its large readership base. He said, “Over the years, we have been speaking about financial literacy and knowledge. At the end of the day, when people want to invest their hard-earned money, they want to do this with people they trust, hence we launch Sakal Money to build on the great relationship we have with people in Maharashtra.”
The company will recruit agents across Maharashtra to distribute mutual funds under the sub-broking model. The company will train these agents and help them complete their AMFI registration for mutual fund distribution. The company has already signed up over 100 new distributors across Pune, Nashik, Kolhapur and Mumbai.
The company will ensure that they provide training to these new distributors on products recommendation, carrying out KYC and client servicing.
In addition, Sakal Money is open to explore partnership opportunities with ARN holders. Gupta said that they aim to empanel at least 1,000 distributors within 15 months; 20% of these would be existing ARN holders. The company will offer online and offline transaction facility, research reports and robust CRM tools to its distributors.
When asked what if clients directly approach the company for mutual fund investments, Gupta said that they would hand over such clients to their empanelled distributors based on the location of clients. “We do not service clients directly. Instead, we believe mutual fund distributors can service clients better. We will look after research, asset allocation, product recommendation, transaction facility, operational tasks and other back office work,” he added.
On commission sharing, Gupta assured that the lion’s share of the commission would go to distributors, as they are the ones who service clients.
