Chennai, June 9 (IANS) Kochi-based financial services company Geojit BNP Paribas Wednesday said it will focus on its portfolio management services (PMS), double the non-resident Indian (NRI) client base and expand the branch network within the country and outside.

"The assets under management (AUM) under our PMS portfolio is around Rs.100 crore ($22 million) now. This we want to increase further. We have 75,000 NRI customers and we plan to double that soon," Managing Director C.J. George told reporters here.

"Further, we are expanding our distribution reach by opening 75 new branches this year - 50 owned by us and 25 by franchisees," he said.

George said out of the 500 and odd branches in India, 385 are owned by the company and the rest by franchisees.

He said the company's joint ventures in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia will also be opening new branches to cater to the NRI population there.

The Rs.304 crore (over $600 million) revenue company earns 80 percent of its income from equity share trading brokerage and the balance by distributing third party products like mutual funds, insurance and others.

"Even though the revenue from distributing mutual funds has come down owing to the lowering of distributor commission, we have decided to stay focussed on this line as in the long run it is the organised players who would survive," George added.

He said around five percent of the company's 500,000 customers trade daily and their number would go up if the stock market is on the upswing fetching higher broking revenue.