 "Godrej Capital")
Godrej Capital, an entity straddling the housing and SME lending segments, aims to more than double its loan book to Rs 12,000 crore in the current financial year and reach Rs 50,000 crore within the next five years.
It closed FY23 with a loan book of Rs 5,500 crore. Of this housing loans stood at Rs 4,000 crore, while MSME loans were Rs 1,500 crore, said Manish Shah, Managing director & CEO, Godrej Capital.
The financial services arm of Godrej group floated a new digital platform, Nirmaan, on Monday, to give MSMEs access to a range of partners that provide services critical to the growth. These services would cover access to the market and the ability to expand beyond their regional reach, know-how about legal and regulatory compliance.
The company will not charge any fee for services rendered under 'Nirmaan' but expects the loan business to flow over a period from SME customers availing such services.
The company started lending to SMEs in FY23. Going forward, this loan book would be larger than the housing loan portfolio, the company said. That would take the overall book at Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years with the SME book at Rs 35,000 crore and housing at Rs 15,000 crore.
The group has committed additional capital of Rs 1,200 crore for two lending entities in FY24, Shah said. The Godrej group had initially committed equity capital of about Rs 1,500 crore to the financial services businesses. This has largely been infused, with the latest being Rs 200 crore in Godrej Housing Finance Ltd and Rs 500 crore in Godrej Finance Ltd in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
