Grihum Housing Finance, formerly known as Poonawalla Housing Finance, has applied to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India for a corporate agency licence, which will help diversify product offerings and earn fee income. The company expects to receive the licence by March.
“We are awaiting clearance (from Irdai). Given the deep borrower-lender relationship in home loans, our ability to facilitate insurance is deep, provided we get the corporate agency licence,” managing director and chief executive officer Manish Jaiswal, said.
Currently, assets under management stand at Rs 7,500 crore, and it caters to over 75,000 customers. Around 62% of its customers are in the self-employed category. The average ticket size of loans in this category is Rs 10-11 lakh. The loan-to-value ratio is at 60-65%.
Currently, the company is clocking a monthly disbursal run-rate of around Rs 300 crore. It will end the current fiscal with disbursements of Rs 3,000 crore.
Home loans comprise 70% of the company’s loan book. Loan against property, and non-housing segment make up the remaining 30%.
“We are not wanting to chase AUM and therefore do higher ticket sizes… We are focused on making a genuine impact on the sector,” Jaiswal said, adding that the demand for affordable houses has remained robust.
The company expects to double its AUMs in the next three years. Disbursements will grow by around 30-35% year-on-year in the next financial year.
Considering the growth target, it will borrow an additional Rs 2,500-2,600 crore in the next financial year.
Separately, Grihum Housing is also working with the National Housing Bank to set up a retail mortgage-backed securities platform, wherein housing finance companies will sell loan pools. This will provide housing financiers with an alternative source of funding.
“This will be a massive shot in the arm for the sector. From what we hear, we are hopeful that it could not be far away,” Jaiswal said, adding that there could be some positive development in this space in the next six months.
On Tuesday, parent TPG announced the decision to rebrand Poonawalla Housing Finance as Grihum Housing Finance.
In July, the global alternative asset management firm completed the acquisition of a 99.02% stake in the housing finance company from Poonawalla Fincorp through subsidiary TPG Capital Asia. The purchase was made for a pre-money equity valuation of Rs 3,900 crore. As per the deal, TPG also agreed to infuse an additional capital of up to Rs 1,000 crore to support growth.
At 3.5x price-to-book, the deal is the largest in the affordable housing segment.