SHRIRAM TRANSPORT FIN LOOKS TO RAISE $250 MN IN Q4

MUMBAI: After raising $500 million through social bond issue earlier this month, nonbanking financial company Shriram Transport Finance Company may look at raising another $250 million from such bonds before March, a top company official said.

As part of its $3 billion global medium term note programme, the deposit taking NBFC had raised $500 million at a coupon rate of 4.4%.

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, eligible borrowers can raise external commercial borrowing (ECB) up to $750 million per financial year under the automatic route.

“It depends on international markets (conditions). We need to look for a very good window (to raise $250 million from social bonds). If there is a window available, we may raise it before March (2021),” the company’s managing director and CEO Umesh Revankar said. In the quarter ended December 31, the company’s deposits grew by around 19% (y-o-y) to ₹14,335.36 crore from ₹12,027.72 crore last year. On a sequential basis, the increase was close to 11%.

Revankar said the company was earlier using corporate channels to mobilise deposits but has now started accepting deposits across all its branches, and that has resulted in good inflows. “We feel a similar momentum to continue because right now deposit rates of banks are lower and so depositors are looking for better avenues. Also, inflows into mutual funds have reduced and it is getting shifted to banks, and a good part of it to non-banks. There is a big shift in our resource raising,” he said.