Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) plans to raise ₹700-800 crore of capital in a couple of months to fund business growth in its various businesses and arms, its Chairperson Rashmi Saluja has said.

“This capital fund raise of ₹700-800 crore that we are looking at is to strengthen our existing businesses and fund newer opportunities that would take us closer to our vision of turning the Religare Group into a 360-degree financial services conglomerate. This has nothing to do with the one-time settlement (OTS) that we entered recently with the 16 lenders for Religare Finvest,” Saluja told businessline.

She said that this capital raising will happen at the level of REL. The company had last raised ₹570 crore in June 2021 through preferential allotment from both existing and new investors.

RFL’s financial woes

It maybe recalled that Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), a NBFC arm of REL, had last Friday said it had signed a settlement agreement with all its 16 lenders for a one-time settlement, which could pave the way for exit of the NBFC from the RBI-imposed Prompt Corrective Action. RFL has been under a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) since January 2018 owing to its weak financial health.

Saluja also said that the crisis around RFL is over and there are no further legacy issues left in the NBFC. RFL had owed about ₹5,300 crore to the consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI). 

There are four companies — covering health insurance, broking, housing finance and NBFC — under the fold of REL. “We want to give money to each of them for their growth. We also want to start some niche and ancillary activities for our NBFC. We want to do strategic tie-up for our broking. We also want to spend money for developing technology platform in all companies,” Saluja said.

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