Ex-promoters of JRG Sec turn consultants

Jiji Antony, Regi Jacob and Giby Mathew, the erstwhile promoters of Kochi-based listed brokerage JRG Securities – ‘JRG’ represent(ed) the first letters of their first names – have set up Future Finance India (FFI), an advisory and consulting firm in the port city.
FFI will advise companies in the fields of stock, commodity, insurance and currency broking, focusing on “people, process, technology and compliance”.
JRG is now backed by private equity (PE) major Baring India which had invested $35 million (Rs140 crore) in 2007 for a 44.8% stake. Baring’s CEO Anand Tandon said he was not aware of FFI being set up by the trio.
It is said Baring and the three founder-promoters of JRG had developed differences which led to the latter stepping down from their executive posts in 2009. The trio retained only one seat on the board.
When the Baring-led JRG planned a rights issue in June 2010, the trio moved the Company Law Board to halt it.
The three founders still collectively hold a 13.58% stake in JRG,but are no longer classified as promoters. Owing to a three-year non-compete period, the trio did not launch any rival brokerage immediately after their exit from JRG. The period ended in April this year. “We now plan to establish the firm in southern India first,” said Jacob. Besides Kochi, the trio is looking at Bangalore and Chennai.