Shriram Housing Fin gets Rs 300-crore equity capital from parent firm

To oil its fast-paced expansion and the resultant expansion of its loan book, affordable segment-focused Shriram Housing Finance has secured an additional Rs 300 crore equity capital from the parent Shriram City Union Finance, taking its total equity capital to about Rs 1,100 crore.

The company has set a target of crossing Rs 5,600 crore of assets under management (AUM) target by March, as it had already crossed the Rs 4,000-crore mark in July and the new growth capital will help it expand the balance sheet faster.

For the Shriram Group's housing finance company, this is the second round of equity capital infusion; and with this, the total equity infusion in FY22 so far stands at Rs 500 crore and since the launch at Rs 1,088 crore. The capital infusion will enable the mortgage lender to expand its balance sheet faster by growing its loan book.

"This capital infusion will increase the holding of Shriram City Union in the company to 85.02 per cent," Ravi Subramanian, managing director and chief executive of Shriram Housing Finance, told PTI on Wednesday.

He said affordable housing and mid-market segments are witnessing strong demand from small towns, and the capital infusion will be utilised to fund the rising demand for home loans.

The company has ambitious plans to expand its distribution with a primary focus on cross-selling through the Shriram Group network to Shriram customers in Andhra and Telangana.

The capital will also be utilised to fund the expansion plans in the targeted regions.

He said that with this round of recapitalisation, the company's net worth has also increased to Rs 1,088 crore with this investment from Rs 788 crore in June 2021.

Subramanian added that this capital infusion will help the company expand its footprint and enhance growth potential, and this is also a reinforcement of the group's faith in the company's transformed business model.

"We would continue to build on our core strengths and maintain our growth trajectory. This would also help us outperform competition both on business volume and collection efficiency," he added.

On the growth so far this fiscal, he said loan sales have been robust with an annualised growth of 60 per cent, driven by rising demand for affordable home loans. "We are on track with our expansion plans in Andhra and Telangana and that will help us meet our full-year AUM target of Rs 5,600 crore the fiscals."

Earlier, in an interview with PTI, Subramanian had said the city-based affordable housing focused lender, which is one of the three credit business verticals of the Chennai-based Shriram Group, closed FY21 with a loan book of Rs 3,923 crore, which despite the pandemic washout had crossed Rs 4,000 crore in end-June.

This means the company plans to add more than 1.5x times its present book over the next 30 months, he had said.

According to the plan, the loan book, which has already crossed Rs 4,000 crore as of the June quarter, should touch Rs 5,000 crore by December and close the year at around Rs 5,600 crore, and reach Rs 8,000 crore in FY23 and top Rs 10,000 crore by FY24, he had said.