Credit and Finance for MSMEs: Small business lender U GRO Capital on Tuesday announced that it will list on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on August 11. Listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the company said it will become the first fintech lending platform to be listed on both exchanges and will aim to expand access to a larger set of investors and broker network. Its fully paid-up 70,528,550 shares with face value of Rs. 10 each, symbol UGROCAP and series EQ, will be admitted to dealings on NSE. U GRO Capital was set up in 2017 by Shachindra Nath after buying out Chokhani Securities Limited and has so far raised around Rs 920 crore from multiple institutional investors including private equity funds and family offices.
U GRO said it “aspires to build Rs 20,000 crore of asset under management in next five years and take approximately 1 per cent market share of the outstanding MSME credit in India by opening around 270 branches with an aim to serve over lacs of small business customers,” the company said in a statement. “With this development, we aim to expand access to a larger set of investors and broker community,” said Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital.
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Meanwhile, gross bank credit deployed to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) had witnessed contraction for the second month as well of FY22. The outstanding as of May 2021 stood at Rs 10.27 lakh crore, down by negative 3.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth from Rs 10.65 lakh crore as of May 2020, the RBI’s May bulletin had showed. The negative YoY growth had further increased from minus 2.2 per cent in April 2021 that followed the lowest growth of 2.5 per cent recorded in March 2021 since its previous deepest plunge to 1.5 per cent in May 2020. Among other online lending apps for MSMEs are Indifi, ZipLoans, Lendingkart, BharatPe, FlexiLoans, etc.
