Aditya Birla Group, SBI Card partner to offer Co-branded Credit Card

Mumbai, December 21, 2009: Aditya Birla Group and SBI Card today announced a partnership to offer co-branded credit cards to all customers of the Aditya Birla Group companies. This was announced today by Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, and Diwakar Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, SBI Card.

The Aditya Birla Group - SBI co-branded credit cards will be available to over 28 million customers of Aditya Birla Group companies, namely Aditya Birla Retail, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (which includes Birla Sun Life Insurance & Birla Sun Life Mutual Funds), IDEA and Madura Garments. The initiative will be led by the financial services arm of the Aditya Birla Group – Aditya Birla Financial Services.

"The Aditya Birla Group already has a strong presence in the financial services business, as a significant player in the non bank space. And we are committed to meet all the felt and unfelt financial needs of our target customer. Today, we take yet another step in that direction, with the signing of a MOU with SBI Card, to offer a co-branded credit card to the customers of the Aditya Birla Group. Customers are our biggest asset and with a base of over 60 million customers, group wide, we wish to leverage this initiative across the Group. Towards this end, companies pan the Group have come together. And we are very proud to have SBI Card as our partner." said Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group.

“We are pleased to partner with the Aditya Birla Group. Through this tie-up we will be able to tap the varied customer segments of the Aditya Birla Group and offer them a relevant value proposition across all retail ventures of the Aditya Birla Group. Bringing new products that offer greater value to our customers has been an ongoing endeavor for us at SBI Card" said Diwakar Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, SBI Card.

The card will be made available across more than 2000 retail outlets of Aditya Birla Group companies.

About Aditya Birla Group (ABG) :

Aditya Birla Group, India's first truly multinational group, is in the League of Fortune 500. The USD 29 billion group operates in 25 countries across the globe and derives over half of its revenues from operations outside India. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 130,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities. Its flagship listed companies include Aditya Birla Minerals, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Grasim, Hindalco-Novelis, Idea Cellular and Ultratech. The group has been adjudged as 6th Top Company for Leaders in Asia Pacific Region in a recent survey by Hewitt Associates (in association with The RBL Group and Fortune Magazine). Driven by its vision ‘to be a premium conglomerate with a clear focus on each business’, the group is a leading player in most of its businesses. Globally, the group is largest producer of viscose staple fibre, has largest aluminium rolling unit, is 4th largest manufacturer of carbon black and insulators and 11th largest producer of cement.

About Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) :

The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) has a significance presence across various verticals, including life insurance, insurance broking, mutual funds, private equity, security based lending, factoring, insurance advisory services, retail broking and distribution of third party products.

The seven companies representing Aditya Birla Financial Services Group are Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company, Aditya Birla Money (erstwhile Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments), Birla Sun Life Distribution Company, Birla Global Finance Company, Birla Insurance Advisory & Broking Services and Aditya Birla Capital Advisors.

The ABFSG is committed to being a leader and role model in a broad based and integrated financial services business. Its 7 business lines, with over 4.2 million customers manages assets over USD 16 billion and prides itself for having a talent pool of over 15,000 committed employees. ABFSG has its wings spread across more than 500 cities in India through over 1600 branches and over 2 lac channel partners. This pretty much allows ABFSG to offer its customers virtually anything other than a savings or current account. With over a billion dollar revenue, ABFSG is a significant non bank player and one of the few players who have a top 5 position in both life insurance and mutual funds.

ABFSG is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (ABNL), a USD 3 billion conglomerate having leadership position across its manufacturing as well as services sector businesses. ABNL is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a USD 29 billion Indian business house operating in 25 countries across the globe.

About SBI Card

SBI Card is a joint venture between State Bank of India and GE Capital to offer Indian consumers extensive access to a wide range of world-class, value-added payment products and services. The partners have set up two joint venture companies to develop a credit card business in India -- SBI Cards & Payment Services Pvt. Ltd., which focuses on the marketing and distribution of SBI Card and GE Capital Business Processes Management Services Pvt. Ltd., which handles the technology and processing needs of SBI Card. Visit www.sbicard.com for more details.