Sundaram BNP Paribas to raise R2,700 cr this fiscal

Reports 100% rise in net profit at R94 crore for the year ended March 31, 2012

Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance, a joint venture between Sundaram Finance and BNP Paribas, will raise close to R2,700 crore in the current financial year to meet its disbursal requirements. The proposed borrowing will help the company close the current fiscal with R5,000 crore in assets under management (AUM).

Sundaram BNP Home Finance managing director Srinivas Acharya said out of the total planned funds, around 41% will be raised through non-convertible debentures (NCDs), 17% from National Housing Board as refinance, and the rest through commercial papers and public deposits, besides lending from banks. The company?s current AUM is around R2,500 crore.

The home loan firm is also watching the market with a view to passing on the benefit to its customers in the form of lending loan interest rate cuts, following the RBI’s recent move to slash CRR.

?We are waiting to see whether our lenders are providing us lower interests. If that happens, we will also act accordingly and there is a possibility of paring the rates by 25 bps,? said Acharya.

The company is also looking at scaling up its securtisation to R500 crore from the current R300 crore.

?This was mainly due to an increase in the portfolio size,? said G Sundararajan, the company?s CFO.

Sundaram BNP Home Finance, the home finance subsidiary, also said it is looking at entering into project financing next year. ?We will start with a small experiment with a ticket size of around R10-20 crore,? he said.

Sundaram Home Finance made its foray outside the southern region recently, expanding its presence into Kolkata, Nashik, Kolhapur, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar.

The company expanded into new locations in the southern states as well, opening around 25 new branches , a majority of them inTier-II and Tier-III towns, taking its total network in the country to 75.

?Riding on the strength of Sundaram Finance, a mojor name in auto loan segment, we will also be able to spread wings to non-southern states in a big way. We will choose the locations in those geographies as per the recommendations of Sundaram Finance and maybe choosy in selecting the customers, as it is a new market for us,” said Acharya.

The company on Thursday reported a R94-crore net profit for the year ended March 31, 2012, compared to the R47 crore it logged in the previous fiscal, registering a 100% growth in net.

Disbursements rose 61% to R1,948 crore from R1,210 crore. “We will close the current fiscal with R2,500 crore in disbursements,” said Acharya. Net NPA stood at 0.06% compared to 0.09% last year. “We will able to maintain the same level during the current fiscal also,” he added.

Sundaram Home Finance expanded its customer base to 36,000 retail customers during the last fiscal, adding over 10,000 new customers during the year.