Manian family of Chennai plans NBFC

The NBFC is a part of its strategy to expand into new areas such as real estate and renewable energy

The Chennai-based Manian family, which was in the infrastructure business for over 60 years, is planning to set up a non-banking finance company (NBFC). Last year, it sold its construction company NAPC to Vinci, a euro 35 billion French construction major.

"We want to start an NBFC if everything goes well. It will focus on real estate projects and to start with we will put in around Rs 200 crore," said Varun Manian, promoter of Radiance Realty.

The NBFC is part of his strategy to expand into new areas such as real estate and renewable energy. He is planning to set up solar farms in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

With the growing real estate (residential space) boom in the state, the new NBFC had got enough scope , he said, adding nd one of the major advantages would be their domain knowledge in the construction sector.

According to property consultants Knight Frank, Chennai witnessed several new project launches in 2012 totalling a supply of over 26,000 houses, which was 73 per cent more than the previous year. As of December 2012, an estimated 77,500 units were under construction in the city.

Varun Manian's real estate venture has lined up residential projects worth $1 billion to be developed over the next four to five years.

NAPC Ltd started out in 1949 as a road construction company in Mumbai with operations centred around the West Coast. It made inroads into quarrying/crushing and mining industry. In January 2012, it was sold to Vinci for an undisclosed amount.