Mumbai: Zee Entertainment promoter Subhash Chandra’s Essel Finance has been quietly building up a portfolio of businesses across the financial services spectrum through acquisitions. The non-banking finance company (NBFC) recently acquired the loan portfolio of SME financier Intec Capital.
Speaking to TOI, Essel Finance MD Amitabh Chaturvedi said that the company will also make an investment in the digital transaction space.
Essel Finance had bought out Peerless Mutual Fund last year and, in 2015, the company had acquired VKC Forex which has since been renamed.The various entities come under Essel Finance Management, a limited liability partnership company. The promoters have already invested Rs 200 crore in financial services and are set to pump in an additional Rs 200 crore by March 2018. Most of the capital is consumed by the NBFC.
Of the funds infused this year, Rs 75 crore will go into the mutual fund firm and the balance will go into the NBFC and housing finance company.
“We feel that there is space for a large private sector financial conglomerate in the same league as the top five,” Chaturvedi said. Besides lending, Essel has turned out to be a sizeable player in the asset management space and manages investments under its alternate investments fund, portfolio management services (PMS), mutual funds and private equity.
“For the next three years, we do not see ourselves getting into the banking or insurance business,” said Chaturvedi. He added that by 2021, when the company would have achieved scale, it would look at raising capital. Chaturvedi has been with Essel Finance for five years. Prior to this, he was CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank — a regional lender which he attempted to transform into a pan-Indian bank.
Source:-TOI
