ADVERTISEMENT

Financial CPSE ETF Will Draw More Investors To Equities: 1Pay’s Sanjiv Shah

This is a right step taken by the government to get newer domestic investors to invest in equities, said Shah.



A cashier counts Indian one hundred-rupee banknotes at an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch in New Delhi, India (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
A cashier counts Indian one hundred-rupee banknotes at an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch in New Delhi, India (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

The government may easily find buyers for its exchange-traded funds comprising financial public sector units, according to Sanjiv Shah, co-founder of 1Pay.

“This (ETF sale) will be a very successful launch, if and when it happens, given the appetite for financial services stocks in India,” the co-founder of the mobile payments platform told BloombergQuint in an interview. “The government could put Rs 70,000 crore (through recapitalisation) and sell the same amount as ETFs. In reality, it doesn’t make a difference but the move will still be welcomed.”

This is a right step taken by the government to get new domestic investors to invest in equities, said Shah.

The total number of demat accounts in India is at just four crore in a country of 130 crore. Even if you knock off 80 percent of people, we have 25 crore people. I believe many Indians aren’t taking part in the growth story of India.
Sanjiv Shah, Co-Founder, 1Pay

India aims to mop up Rs 1,05,000 crore from selling shares in central public sector enterprises in financial year 2019-20, higher than the Rs 90,000-crore target set during the interim budget. Also, the Finance Ministry is planning to launch an ETF this fiscal comprising stocks of state-run banks and financial institutions.

Watch the full video here: