Muthoot Finance Q1 net up 30%

Muthoot Finance posted a 30 per cent increase in net profit at Rs.351 crore in the first quarter of FY18 against Rs.270 crore in the previous year.

The company’s loan assets rose Rs.574 crore during the quarter. Its loan assets stood at Rs.27,852 crore as at end-June.

The board has decided to acquire the remaining 11.73 per cent in Muthoot Homefin (India), which is held by other shareholders, at an aggregate price of Rs.38.72 crore. With this acquisition, MHIL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Muthoot Finance.

Further, the board has decided to infuse Rs.100 crore in MHIL as equity share capital. During the quarter, MHIL’s loan portfolio increased by Rs.155 crore to Rs.596 crore.

Belstar Investment and Finance, a microfinance NBFC in which Muthoot Finance holds 64.60 per cent stake, grew its loan portfolio 11 per cent to Rs.628 crore.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Fincorp eyeing for PE funds

Muthoot Fincorp, the flagship company of Muthoot Pappachan Group, is looking at private equity (PE) funding of Rs. 600-800 crore this fiscal.

The company is also planning to come up with public issue of bonds worth Rs. 550 crore sometime in June. For the full fiscal year 2016, it may do public issue of bonds up to Rs. 1,000 crore.

The funds will be deployed in growing the existing business towards income generation for the wider segment of the population at the bottom of the pyramid.

Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman of the Group said, “Our financial services business were primarily targeted towards financial inclusion and will continue to do so.”

It is also encouraging households to recycle old gold jewellery holdings and plans to open 20 collection centres in the next two years beginning with a centre in Chennai next week.

The micro finance business unit of Muthoot Fincorp, Muthoot Microfinance that secured an NBFC-MFI licence earlier this year, is planning for a capital infusion of Rs. 200 crore through promoter funding.

Muthoot Microfinance is also eyeing for a PE funding by 2016-17 aiming to double its asset book to Rs. 3,000 crore from Rs. 1500 crore in two years.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Fin cautions people against fake promotion schemes

Muthoot Finance has cautioned people against fake Muthoot Finance Lottery promotions.

In a recent instance, a supposed organisation by the name of Chevron Texaco Oil & Gas Company fraudulently attempted to lure customers/ investors, through the platform of Muthoot Finance, by sending bogus e-mails and informing unsuspecting people that they have won a lottery worth crores of rupees.

The unsuspected customers were further instructed to submit their details, including residential address, bank name, account number, account holder’s name, bank branch, and scanned copy of their ID proof to a dubious email ID: muthootfinanceaward05@mail.ru.

Muthoot Finance has advised customers and the general public to exercise caution against such e-mails. The company has clarified that it has no partnership with Chevron Texaco Oil & Gas Company – and that it does not seek money from people in exchange for lottery money.

According to R. M. Diwan, General Manager, Muthoot Finance Ltd, the company is looking into the matter and is also taking appropriate legal and punitive action to curb fraudulent claims by fake companies and fraudsters.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Fincorp’s first BC outlet

The first ‘business correspondent’ outlet born out of the tie up between YES Bank and Muthoot Fincorp has opened at North Paravur near here. Thomas Muthoot, Executive Director of Muthoot Fincorp, said that initially the NBFC would roll out two YES Bank products — YES Leap and YES Money. Under Leap, financial services such as credit savings and insurance will be offered to self-help groups through Muthoot’s branches. YES Money is a domestic remittance service.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Fincorp is Business Correspondent for Yes Bank

Muthoot Fincorp, the flagship company of Muthoot Pappachan Group, on Tuesday launched its Business Correspondent operations in the country with Yes Bank.

The launch is pursuant to the agreement signed nearly two months ago between the two financial services providers after RBI gave its nod on allowing banks to appoint non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) as Business Correspondents.

Thomas Muthoot, Executive Director of Muthoot Fincorp told reporters that with this arrangement, MFL is set to become the country’s first NBFC in the gold loan space to act as a Business Correspondent to the bank.

Muthoot Fincorp rolled out its disbursement of funds for two of Yes Bank’s products -Yes Leap (Yes Livelihood Enhancement Action Programme) is the flagship product of the inclusive and Social Banking (ISB) division of Yes Bank.

Under this comprehensive financial services such as credit, savings and insurance to the self-help groups will be provided to customers of Yes Bank through branches of MFL. The ’Yes Money’ would help to provide seamless domestic remittance service to customers at reasonable fee.

Muthoot said the new services have been rolled out from one of their branches here. Ganesh Narayanan, President and RBL-Indian Financial Institutions, Yes Bank Ltd, said that in Tamil Nadu they have done a business of Rs. 150 crore with two partners in the last two years.

In Kerala, where Yes Bank has also partnered with Muthoot Finance ltd, was looking to roping in more partners. ‘We are not chasing any targets’, he said.

Yes Bank has 40 business correspondents across the country.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance launches housing loan down payment scheme

Muthoot Finance has launched a product ‘Home Down Payment Loan’ to finance margin money needed to avail of home loans.

As per the norms, a home loan borrower has to pay 20 per cent margin money or his own contribution to avail of housing loan up to 80 per cent.

Many people do not get a housing loan because they do not have margin money. So, Muthoot Finance has come out with such a product which takes care of the margin money issue of home loan seeker, Muthoot Group AGM marketing Avinav Chaubey said.

With repayment period of five years, this product has been designed for the down payment of a new property or renovation or extension of an existing property.

Loan under this plan is provided instantly with no property or income documents required even before the property is selected, he said, adding the prominent feature of this loan plan is that gives its borrowers an option to pay their interest as EMI only for the days they need the amount without additional charges.

It provides cheaper interest rates as compared to taking personal loans or from local pawn shops.

The loan, available at 11 per cent interest rate, would range from Rs. 1 lakh to 10 lakh for a period of 12 to 60 months.

Besides, the company has also launched consumer loan to offer convenient credit options to customers for buying consumer durable.

Convenient Consumer Loan (CCL), which is an EMI based loan service and can be cleared within 36 months, he said, adding convenient consumer loan also does not include any ’Negative Area’ concept, wherein the loan seekers application often gets rejected.

The target group for this scheme include salaried persons, traders, professionally employed persons, agriculturists etc.

The CCL provides instant finance up to 100 per cent of the product value without the need of CIBIL Score or Credit Card.

There are no processing charges involved and an exclusive zero down payment facility is offered to all its customers.

Source : The Hindu

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Muthoot Fincorp to offer gold loans at lower rate to women

Gold lender Muthoot Fincorp said it will be offering a two percentage point discount to women borrowers for loans under Rs 50,000 for a limited period in view of International Women’s Day.

Women will be able to borrow at 12 per cent for loans up to a tenor of 1 year under Rs 50,000, it said in a statement.

A company spokesperson added that it otherwise charges a rate of 14 per cent for loans under Rs 50,000, which can go up to 22 per cent for loans above Rs 3 lakh.

The current scheme is available only till March 15 across the company’s 3,829 branches, the statement said.

Women will get a loan to value ratio of up to 71 per cent, the company added.

Under the gold loan scheme, a borrower keeps gold as a security for raising money from a financier.

The gold is given back to the customer after repayment or sold if the borrower falters on repayment.


Source: The Hindu Businessline

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Muthoot Finance hopes to regain lost business

Muthoot Finance expects to recoup, in the next two-three quarters, the business it lost to the unorganised sector in the last two years or so as the central bank has relaxed the restriction on the amount of loan that non-banking finance companies can give against the pledge of gold jewellery.

According to George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Finance, the company lost almost 14 per cent of its business to the unorganised sector after the RBI, in March 2012, restricted the amount of loan that non-banking finance companies can lend to 60 per cent of value of the gold jewellery pledged.

RBI norms

The RBI has now allowed the NBFCs to lend up to 75 per cent of the value of the gold jewellery pledged.

After the RBI restriction on lending, the company’s business declined from Rs 25,500 crore in March 2012 to about Rs 22,000 now. “The regulator now has more comfort with the business model of gold loan companies,” said Muthoot.

Gold purity

He emphasised that the RBI stand on the need to give a certificate on the purity of gold to customers and the method of establishing ownership of gold jewellery are hygiene factors in the lending business and are welcome.


Source: Thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot plans new NCD issue

Encouraged by a strong response to its recent NCD issue, Muthoot Finance will tap the market with a similar debt offering, its Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot said.

In November, the gold loan company had mobilised Rs 300 crore through a non-convertible debenture issue.

About 25,000 retail investors subscribed to the offer, the company’s sixth NCD issue, and this has encouraged it to look at a higher issue size for the seventh NCD issue, Muthoot told Business Line here on Saturday.

The company is now looking at an issue size of Rs 250 crore with a green shoe option of Rs 250 crore for the upcoming NCD issue, likely to open on December 16.

This will be the third debt issue by the company this fiscal, with the first one hitting the market in September to mop up about Rs 300 crore.

“We need to deepen our debt markets. Muthoot Finance is also trying to bring more people into the debt (securities) market,” Muthoot said.

To encourage retail participation in the debt market, Muthoot Finance has been incurring certain costs (like stamp duty) involved in the opening of a demat account by retail investors.

With market regulator SEBI now allowing investors to open demat accounts sans stamp duty, the debt market activity may see some boost, say market observers.

“The SEBI move to do away with stamp duty for opening demat accounts could help spur activity,” Muthoot said.

He further said the company’s strategy of diversifying its resource base and reducing its reliance on bank loans is working well.

Towards this end, it has tapped the market with several NCD issues over the past few years, he pointed out.

Going forward, it will repay more of its higher cost bank loans out of the resources mobilised from the NCDs.

To sponsor event

Muthoot Finance will be the title sponsor of the Cochin International Half Marathon to be held on December 29.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance looking to become a ‘financial supermarket’

Muthoot Finance Ltd, which hopes to secure a banking licence from the Reserve Bank soon, is going in for an image makeover — from a gold loan company to a ‘financial supermarket’.

“We are moving forward from being just a gold finance company to a financial supermarket where all kinds of financial services provided by major banks could be offered,” says K. P. Padmakumar, Executive Director of the company.

Padmakumar, a former chairman of Federal Bank, told Business Line that the financial services would include wealth management, insurance, foreign exchange and securities businesses.

Already, its recently-launched insurance initiative and foreign remittances business had made impressive performances. “We are no longer a single-product company.”

Muthoot Finance is one of the 26 companies that have applied to the RBI for banking licence.

The RBI shortlist is expected in a couple of months.

Rural focus

Padmakumar, who conceded that the image makeover move was part of its banking project, pointed out that around 70 per cent of Muthoot’s financing was in the rural areas.

About two-thirds of the 4,229 branches were in the rural regions.

“We are ahead of all the NBFCs in pushing financial inclusion by providing loans to the rural people,” he said.

“We are taking our financial products to the last mile.”

Padmakumar said the tough restrictions imposed by the regulators had hit gold loan financing.

Only 60 per cent of the value of the pledged gold could be advanced. “These regulations are a big setback to the gold financing sector,” he said. However, the rural penetration had helped the company weather the challenges in the market.

He said that in just three months, the company’s insurance initiative could secure three lakh people, mostly rural ones. The international remittances wing was now making about two lakh transfers every month — mostly from the Gulf countries to mainly Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Padmakumar claimed that Muthoot was best placed to set up a bank considering its branch network, the share of rural credit and the various financial services now being offered.

basheer.kpm@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinesslinea

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Muthoot Finance Q2 net declines 21%

Muthoot Finance on Thursday reported a 21 per cent decline in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013 at Rs 211 crore (Rs 268 crore).

Total income from operations for the quarter under review dipped marginally to Rs 1,296 crore (Rs 1,306 crore).

The board of directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share for 2013-14, the company said in a filing with the stock exchange, Mumbai.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance to float Rs 300-cr NCD issue next week

Muthoot Finance will next week tap the market with a Rs 300 crore non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue, its Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot has said.

This NCD issue will be for Rs 150 crore with an option to retain over-subscription of Rs 150 crore. The coupon rate on this debt instrument is likely to be 12 percent, Muthoot told BusinessLine.

For Muthoot Finance, this will be the sixth NCD issue. The company had come up with five listed NCD issues in recent years.

The previous NCD issue—which happened in September 2013-- was for Rs 300 crore including the green shoe option of Rs 150 crore. The demand for such NCDs was about Rs 325 crore, it is learnt.

Muthoot sees assets under management (AUM) growth for the current fiscal to be flat.

“I don’t see any growth in the short term—atleast for the next 2-3 quarters. The current negative sentiment has to subside. Growth will finally depend on the policies of the Reserve Bank of India towards gold loan companies”, Muthoot said.

Muthoot Finance on Thursday reported a 21 percent decline in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30 at Rs 211 crore (Rs 268 crore).

This second quarter bottomline performance is however higher than the first quarter net profit of Rs 194 crore.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance gets ‘Golden Peacock’ award

Gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd has been bestowed with Golden Peacock Award for ‘HR Excellence for 2013’ at a function in London.

Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate, Government of United Kingdom, presented the award to George M. Jacob, Director, Muthoot Group.

Golden Peacock Award recognises the continuing commitment by business to conduct itself ethically and contribute to economic development, while improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Housing eyeing Rs 300 cr biz this fiscal

Gold loan lender Muthoot Pappachan Group’s housing finance subsidiary is targeting to grow its book by nearly three times to Rs 300 crore by March 2014.

“We started home loan business in July 2011 and had a book of Rs 105 crore as of March 2013. This would grow to Rs 200 crore by September and Rs 300 crore by March 2014,” Muthoot Housing Finance Chief Executive Maneesh Srivastava told PTI.

Housing loans

He said the group, which has been facing trouble ever since the regulatory moves on flagship gold loans business, branched out into housing loans to increase its product bouquet, spread its risks and leverage on the existing network even though a loan is processed independently.

Srivastava said the company lends between Rs 3 and 15 lakh, with the average loan size at Rs 6.3 lakh. It generally targets projects in the vicinity of a big city or a town.

Due diligence on loans

It does not insist on any income documentation and relies on CIBIL data, inputs from the field time and ability to assess the informal sector of the economy, courtesy the experience from the gold loan lending, for doing due diligence on loans, he said.

The company is present in 17 cities across seven States. Unlike the gold loan lending business, a major chunk of business comes from western and northern markets, he said.

The company primarily depends on finance from commercial banks and also on refinance provided by sector regulator National Housing Bank, he said, adding that it lends in the region of 13.5 to 16 per cent per annum to borrowers depending on the risk.

Loan growth target

He claimed that the company has commitments worth Rs 100 crore from its bankers already lined up and hence, it will not be difficult to attain the targeted loan growth.

Srivastava said the company is well capitalised with a contribution of Rs 55 crore from the parent and its capital adequacy will stand at over 30 per cent by March 2014.

Currently, the parent holds 66 per cent in the company, Srivastava said, adding that in the future, it may look to divest to a “strategic investor”.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot NCDs oversubscribed; gets offers worth Rs 325 cr

Leading gold finance company Muthoot Finance said its non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue has been oversubscribed by 1.084 times.

The issue has received total subscription of Rs 325.20 crore, Muthoot Finance said in a statement.

The company came out with NCD issue earlier this month worth Rs 150 crore with an option to retain over-subscription up to Rs 150 crore, aggregating to Rs 300 crore.

It said the funds raised through this issue will be utilised by for various financing activities including lending and investments, to repay existing loans and towards business operations.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot to set up first ATM next month

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has cleared gold-loan company Muthoot Finance’s proposal to set up white-label ATMs in the country.

Muthoot, which had received the RBI nod for the plan in June, is expected to set up its first batch of ATMs next month in one of the southern States. The company, which has also sought RBI’s permission to set up a bank, has plans to establish 9000 ATMs across the country in the next three years. The first 1000 would be set up in the next one year.

A company press note said 65 per cent of the ATMs would be located in semi-urban and rural areas in order to increase financial inclusion. The white-label would be of different types: standalone, through-the-wall, drive-in, mini and moving ATMs. They would be placed at strategic locations such as shopping areas, bus-stands, cinema theatres and schools.

White-label ATMs will not sport the label of any bank and each transaction will be charged a small fee. An ATM costs Rs 5-6 lakh and the operating cost is upwards of Rs 10,000 a month.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance NCD issue opens

Gold loan company Muthoot Finance opened a public issue of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on Monday.

The company plans to mop up Rs 150 crore, with an option to retain oversubscription for another Rs 150 crore, through the issue.

The NCDs have a face value of Rs 1,000 each.

The minimum application size is 10 NCDs. The issue will close on September 16. The NCDs will be listed on the BSE, a company press note said.

There are ten investment options for the secured NCDs and one for the unsecured. They will have an effective yield of up to 12.55 per cent a year.

The company said the funds raised through the NCD issue will be used for lending and investment, repay loans and other liabilities, and capital expenditure and working capital requirements.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Finance files draft paper for Rs 300 cr NCDs

Muthoot Finance has filed the draft prospectus with market regulator SEBI for public issuance of secured non—convertible debentures (NCDs) of up to Rs 300 crore.

The NCD issue aims at aggregating up to Rs 150 crore with an option to retain over—subscription of up to Rs 150 crore, as per draft prospectus filed with SEBI showed.

“Public issue by our company of NCDs aggregates up to Rs 1,500 million with an option to retain over—subscription up to Rs 1,500 million for issuance of additional NCDs aggregating to a total of up to Rs 3,000 million,” it added.

Funds raised through this issue would be used for financing activities, including lending and investments, besides utilising them to repay existing loans, capital expenditure plans and to meet working capital requirements.

ICICI Securities is the lead managers to the issue, while Link Intime India is registrar to the issue.

Muthoot Finance, is one of the largest gold financing company in India, with a market share of over 20 per cent as of March 31, 2012.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Capital Q1 net rises 21%

Muthoot Capital Services Ltd has registered a 21.30-per cent growth in net profit at Rs 5.98 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year, compared with Rs 4.93 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Total income increased 56.83 per cent to Rs 34.77 crore (Rs 22.17 crore). Financial expenses increased to Rs 12.36 crore (Rs 7.19 crore), recording a rise of 71.91 per cent.

Non-financial expenses increased to Rs 13.32 crore (Rs 7.42 crore), a rise of 79.51 per cent. Profit before tax grew 20.24 per cent to Rs 9.09 crore (Rs 7.56 crore).

Total loan portfolio increased to Rs 508.68 crore (Rs 325.05 crore), recording a growth of 56.49 per cent. .

Thomas George Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Capital Services, said loan disbursal has been consistent over the years and stands at Rs 508.68 crore. According to R. Manomohanan, CEO, the company is expanding its business by adding new products and manpower. The annual general meeting also approved a dividend of Rs 4 per equity share (40 per cent).

sajeevkumar.v@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Muthoot Capital Q1 net rises 21%

Muthoot Capital Services Ltd has registered a 21.30-per cent growth in net profit at Rs 5.98 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year, compared with Rs 4.93 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Total income increased 56.83 per cent to Rs 34.77 crore (Rs 22.17 crore). Financial expenses increased to Rs 12.36 crore (Rs 7.19 crore), recording a rise of 71.91 per cent.

Non-financial expenses increased to Rs 13.32 crore (Rs 7.42 crore), a rise of 79.51 per cent. Profit before tax grew 20.24 per cent to Rs 9.09 crore (Rs 7.56 crore).

Total loan portfolio increased to Rs 508.68 crore (Rs 325.05 crore), recording a growth of 56.49 per cent. .

Thomas George Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Capital Services, said loan disbursal has been consistent over the years and stands at Rs 508.68 crore. According to R. Manomohanan, CEO, the company is expanding its business by adding new products and manpower. The annual general meeting also approved a dividend of Rs 4 per equity share (40 per cent).

sajeevkumar.v@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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