Maintaining High Loan Growth Difficult, But Book Will Grow Robustly: ABCL

Maintaining the high loan growth seen in FY23 will be difficult for Aditya Birla Finance, but the company is confident of growing the book robustly given the opportunities it sees in the market, a top official said on Wednesday.

The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL), the financial services arm of the conglomerate, had posted a 46 per cent growth to Rs 80,556 crore in FY23.

"46 (per cent) is a large number, it is very difficult to continue to maintain that kind of a thing. As I said that we have created scale and size in our business, and we see the opportunities in the market (are) immense.

"We have put all the building blocks in place, so I don't see a reason why we shouldn't grow robustly as we go forward," Aditya Birla Capital's chief executive Vishakha Mulye told reporters.

She also said the robust loan growth it is planning will also outperform the market.

When asked if the Rs 3,000 crore capital infusion ABCL is planning will go to the lending business, Mulye replied in the affirmative.

"Our NBFC has grown and outperformed the market in the last year. I expect the market to be robust on the lending side. So therefore, yes, that will be a good assumption to take," she said.

Mulye, who joined the company last year, however, declined to give any specific number saying she does not want to make any forward-looking statement.

She said the company's core capital buffer is over 15 per cent and hinted that a part of the Rs 3,000 crore capital raise will be funnelled into ABCL's lending arm.

No business under ABCL will be starved of capital, she added.

The company launched "Udyog Plus", a dedicated offering for small businesses, under which it will be providing finance and an array of other services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Mulye declined to share any targets under the same initiative.

Under the initiative, the company will be giving unsecured loans of up to Rs 10 lakh using digital technology for quicker turnarounds. The overall MSME loan book stands at Rs 40,000 crore right now, of which Rs 32,000 crore is secured.

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