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Shriram Group Chairman R Thyagarajan has said, in less than two years, the promoter entity (of Shriram Capital), Piramal and South African financial conglomerate Sanlam will have equal stakes in Shriram Capital -- the holding company of the Rs 60,000-crore financial services businesses of Shriram Group.
Speaking to reporters in the sidelines of a conference on GM Technology - Myth and Reality, organised by Industrial Economist and Agriculture Consultancy Management Foundation, he said, “Our aim is all the three groups (Shriram Ownership Trust, Piramal and Sanlam) should have equal shareholding in the company, eventually. I am talking about the financial services arm and not the non-financial services businesses.”
The promoters of Shriram envisage a three-way partnership between themselves, Piramal Enterprises and Sanlam. Shriram Capital is the group’s holding company, which runs the insurance and financial services businesses.
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The Piramal group has earlier bought around 20 per cent stake in Shriram Capital for Rs 2,014 crore and later 10 per cent stake in Shriram City Union Finance. In May, 2013, the Piramal group has bought 9.9 per cent stake in Shriram Transport Finance for Rs 1,652 crore. According to reports, Ajay Piramal would be taken over as the chairman of Shriram Capital and a formal announcement would come out anytime now.
Thyagarajn refused to comment anything related to Piramal taking over as the chairman.
The Piramal group has also expressed their idea of staying for a long-term partnership. On long-term partnership with the Shriram Group, he said, “Marriages in India are forever, they do not come with exit clauses."
Shriram Group has earlier said the partnership would help Shriram Capital to strengthen its financial services business. According to reports in April this year, promoters of Shriram Ownership Trust has diluted 10 per cent stake apart from issuing fresh capital amounting to 10 per cent to the Piramal group. With this, Shriram Ownership Trust has 47 per cent stake, declining from 64 per cent, while Sanlam has 23 per cent stake in Shriram Capital.
Thyagarajan has earlier also said the idea is to create an entity where all the three partners have equal stakes. "We believe that partnerships should be equal and over time, all three partners will have equal stakes," he had said. However, he refused to reveal more on the plans.
Sanlam has also expressed its interest to increase stake in the company, though there were some regulatory hurdles in doing so. Shriram Capital's operating entities have 53,000 employees across 2,600 offices and a net profit of Rs 800 crore with assets under management of Rs 78,000 crore, in April this year.
