Religare Finvest hopes to complete debt restructuring by December

Religare Finvest, which is the NBFC arm of embattled financial services conglomerate Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL), is hopeful of completing its debt restructuring by December this year.

“We don’t expect the final restructuring plan to go beyond the third quarter of the year, maybe even earlier than December,” said Nitin Aggarwal, Group CFO, Religare Enterprises Ltd and CEO, Religare Broking, adding that once it is through, the company will be much different.

The proposal has already been submitted to the lenders and is expected to be approved soon. The company is also in talks with strategic investors. The Reserve Bank of India in March this year had rejected a proposal to allow TCG Advisory, which is part of NRI investor Purnendu Chatterjee’s The Chatterjee Group, to pick up a stake in the company.

“We are discussing the issue of strategic investor with the lenders and it is work in progress. We will make a formal announcement once it is a binding transaction,” Aggarwal told BusinessLine.

He also said that apart from the NBFC and lending business, the other businesses of health insurance and broking are doing well and have even got a fillip despite the current Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Kedaara transaction will help in potential growth in the health insurance segment,” he said.

Religare Health Insurance Company (RHICL) had signed a deal with PE group Kedaara where the latter has taken an over six per cent stake in the insurer and invested about ₹567 crore, including ₹300 crore of growth capital.

“June was quite a fantastic month for us as due to the pandemic people are keen on buying insurance. As the economy is opening up, we are able to sell more products through bancassurance and agents channels. It is back to normal,” Aggarwal said.

Similarly, Religare Broking is also doing well with more retail participants joining equity markets during the lockdown.

“We have turned around the broking business and it was profitable even pre-Covid and even during Covid,” he said.

Religare Housing Development Finance Company, which is the housing finance arm, is facing liquidity issues but is bullish on the affordable housing segment in which it primarily operates.

Religare Enterprises had in June this year announced that it has become external debt free.