Srei BNP Paribas, an infrastructure and construction equipment financing company, is exploring options to raise to infuse as much as Rs 500 crore equity within end of fiscal FY12.
The company which is an equal joint venture between Kolkatta based Srei Group and French financial major BNP Paribas, has Rs 15,000 crore assets under management and the fresh equity infusion is being planned to expand this base. D K Vyas, CEO, Srei BNP Paribas said that they are working on 2-3 options to infuse equity and if these do not fructify, the joint venture partners will infuse equity. According to Vyas, they have around 33 per cent market share in the $4 billion market in India and hopes to disburse Rs 14,000 crore in Fy12.
He further added that they are witnessing robust demand for construction equipment, despite waning macro-economic indicators. “There are concerns, but that has not affected our business,” he claimed stating that the disbursements will grow by as much as 30 per cent from last fiscal.
Srei BNP Paribas is working on a net interest margin of 4.5 per cent and is working aggressively to expand this parameter.
“The cost of our funds is indeed increasing, but the same is being passed onto customers due to floating interest rates and we are glad to note that the defaults from our customers is not much... in fact its less than 0.5 per cent,” he said.
According to him, for the first six months of this fiscal, they have disbursed around Rs 6,600 crore of which around Rs 2,000 crore has already been securitised. “We got a good deal and we felt it is worthwhile to go for it,” he noted.