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.
NEW DELHI: Corporate bookings which made up a quarter of air ticket sales before the coronavirus outbreak are expected to rebound in the first quarter of FY22 as the economy continues to strengthen, experts said.
India’s largest airline Indigo expects corporate and business travel at 80% of pre-covid numbers by April.
The airline, owned by Interglobe Aviation Ltd, recorded 22% of revenue from domestic corporate and business customers till December 2019, which fell to just 8% in the subsequent months.
“We are seeing a very positive response from corporate houses, whom we have been interacting with,” Indigo’s chief strategy and revenue officer Sanjay Kumar told analysts during a post-results call last week.
“And especially now, after the event of last year to this long holiday season of December, we are getting a sense that a lot of corporates are now beginning to travel,” he added.
Airlines charge a premium on business travel, considering that they do not charge for a change in date, besides offering free meals and lower cancellation charges. The tickets, which are often booked in bulk, are 10-12% more expensive than general tickets, said Nishant Pitti, chief executive officer and co-founder, Easemytrip.com, a travel portal.
“Corporate bookings comprised just 40% of pre-covid due to reduced travel by corporates with many preferring video conferencing during the pandemic,” Pitti said. However, since January, business and corporate bookings have picked up, he added.
Indigo’s Kumar said pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, construction, automobiles, and small and medium enterprises, besides other core sectors are gradually firming up their official travel plans, which had come to a standstill following the covid outbreak.
“The IT and the consulting sector are still taking some time. But, we hope that by the end of Q4 April onwards, they will also be flying,” Kumar added.
Other airlines also expect this segment to pick up.