Temasek-owned Fullerton India gets parent funding

Temasek subsidiary Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), the Singapore-headquartered holding company, injected capital into the NBFC to support its activities. The company also counts Angelica Investments, another wholly-owned Temasek subsidiary, as a shareholder. 

Established in 2007 and headquartered in Mumbai, FICC has 648 branches nationwide and around NR247 billion ($3.3 billion) in assets under management. It has a strong focus on rural and urban micro-lending as well as catering to small and medium-sized enterprises. FICC offers loans for personal, business, housing, and small business needs.

The Indian government has announced a phased process for businesses to follow as they re-open in the coming weeks after being shut for nearly two months as part of efforts to halt the COVID-19 outbreak. Areas that saw high levels of infection are expected to see movement curtailed; a government-approved color scheme is supposed to give guidance to individuals and businesses on whether they can operate.

“As the bulk of our branches are in green and orange zones, we are well placed to bounce back strongly and re-connect with customers to assess their needs and provide solutions,” said Fullerton India CEO Rajashree Nambiar in a statement.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also instructed banks and NBFCs to extend a moratorium to borrowers so that loan repayments don’t need to be made until the end of August. Further, the government has revised the definition of a micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) so that it includes several million more businesses.

Separately, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) said in a disclosure recently that it plans to offer $100 million in debt to FICC to support lending activities in low-income states, and women entrepreneurs in particular. According to IFC, FICC has 1.4% in non-performing assets while it secured an annualized return of 20.2% on equity based on the first three quarters of the previous financial year. 

FFH is also an active investor in online lending platform Lendingkart and has launched a housing finance-focused unit called Grihashakti. 

Other PE-backed NBFCs targeting MSMEs that received funding recently include Veritas Finance, IndoStar Capital Finance, Vivriti Capital and Ess Kay Fincorp.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Financials
• India
• Temasek Holdings
• NBFCs