MUMBAI: Manappuram General Finance and Leasing Ltd has appointed Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador.

Akshay will join other super stars of the South namely, Mohan Lal in Kerala, Puneet Rajkumar in Karnataka, Victor Venkatesh in Andhra Pradesh and "Chiyan" Vikram in Tamil Nadu.
 
Manappuram Finance is the first NBFC in Kerala to get a rating of A1+ from ICRA and a long term rating of LA+ from ICRA for its working capital limit of Rs 6 billion under BASEL II norms. Manappuram Finance has over 1100 branches across 15 states, a staff strength of over 8,000 people and customer base of over 6 lakhs.
 
According to Manappuram Finance V P Nandakumar chairman, Indian households own 20,000 tons of gold which amounts to two third of the country‘s GDP and the total size of mortgaged gold is 1500 tons. Manappuram Finance is managing over 26 tons of mortgaged gold assets. 
 
"A new regional approach to marketing of products will be made with more focus on regional communication strategy by having local dialogues to reach out the masses. These brand ambassadors will help us to connect and communicate Manappuram Brand values to its current and prospective users," said Nandakumar.