Tuesday 3 May 2016

Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance to raise Rs 2,500 crore this fiscal

"The company is targeting to raise Rs 2,500 cr in FY16 through a mix of debt and deposits as part of the fund raising plans this year.

CHENNAI: City-based Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance, the home finance subsidiary of Sundaram Finance Ltd, is looking at raising funds worth Rs 2,500 crore this fiscal as part of its expansion plans.

"The company is targeting to raise Rs 2,500 crore in FY16 through a mix of debt and deposits as part of the fund raising plans this year. National Housing Bank has sanctioned a funding of Rs 1,000 crore," Sundaram BNP Paribas said in a statement.

The mortgage lender eyes Rs 100-crore business from the rural housing segment during the current financial year, Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance Managing Director Srinivas Acharya said.

The smart cities project announced yesterday could be a trigger to aid the recovery in the real estate sector that has been sluggish for the last couple of years, he added.

Meanwhile, Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance has registered a net profit of Rs 146.42 crore for the year ended March 31, 2015.

The Chennai-based company had registered a net profit of Rs 150.73 crore in the previous fiscal.

"The figures are not comparable as there was a deferred tax liability on special reserves, introduced for the first time in financial year 2015, to the tune of Rs 9.59 crore", Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance said in a statement.

On the aquisition of housing finance companies, Acharya said, "The company added business close to Rs 25 crore through acquisition of home loan portfolios of housing finance companies and through securitisation in the second half of last year."

"We will continue to explore opportunities in the area of acquiring home loan portfolios of HFCs. The company believes there is a potential to acquire home loan portfolio of HFCs to the tune of Rs 100 crore this year," he said.

On the outlook for the financial year 2015-16, Acharya said, "...in the short to medium term we may not see a rapid recovery in the real estate space. For the moment, we are adopting a wait and watch approach on the growth prospects for the year."

Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance is a 50.1 and 49.9 per cent joint venture between Sundaram Finance and France-based BNP Paribas.

Income from operations for the financial year ending March 31, 2015, grew to Rs 954 crore from Rs 887 crore registered during the corresponding period last year.

Loans under management stood at Rs 7,486 crore as on March 31, 2015. The total home loan disbursements for the financial year ending March 31, 2015 declined to Rs 1,939 crore from Rs 2,493 crore registered during same period of previous year.

Sundaram Home Finance crossed more than 50,000 customers in FY 2015. The company has 108 offices across the country, the statement said.

Nisus Finance invests Rs 30 cr in Shriram Land Devlpt projs

Nisus Finance Service (NiFCO), a real estate focused fund, has invested Rs 30 crore in residential projects being developed by Shriram Land Development in Bengaluru.



"Shriram Land has raised Rs 30 crore from Nisus to fund its residential projects at Anekal near Bengaluru," the company said in a statement today.

"This investment is in line with our strategy to back affordable housing and plotting projects that are customer focused and promoted by credible groups," Nisus Finance Managing Director and CEO Amit Goenka said.

Shriram Land Executive Director Hemanth Vengali said, "NiFCO, with their integrated suite of financial services including investments, asset management, financial advisory and market development have helped us in accelerating project delivery and sales."

Sun Capital

K Raheja Corp, Gera Developments to build IT-SEZ in Pune

Asked about the project cost, Gera said that the construction cost for this project would be about Rs 1,000 crore



Realty firms K Raheja Corp and Gera Developments have partnered to construct an information technology-special economic zone (IT-SEZ) in Pune at an investment of about Rs 1,000 crore over the next four years.

Property consultant JLL India has facilitated the deal between the Mumbai-based K Raheja Corp and Pune's Gera Developments for the development and operation of the prime 30-acre land parcel in Pune's IT hotbed Kharadi.

"The land parcel will be developed into an ultra-modern IT-SEZ under the Gera Commerzone banner and will yield 3.5 million sq ft of leasable space," JLL said in a statement.

When contacted, Gera Developments Managing Director Rohit Gera said: "We are both going to develop this IT-SEZ together. The land parcel belongs to us. After the development both the companies would be co-owning this project."

He expects the construction of this project to start by August and would take about 4 years for completion.

Asked about the project cost, Gera said that the construction cost for this project would be about Rs 1,000 crore.

"There is an adequate demand for the office space in IT-SEZ," he said.

JLL India Managing Director (Pune) Sanjay Bajaj: "This IT Park will go a long way in meeting Pune's massive pent-up demand for Grade A office spaces in the Information Technology segment."

Against the supply of 4.8 million sq ft of Grade-A office spaces which Pune received in 2015, 4.7 million square feet were absorbed, Bajaj added.

"IT/ITeS is the city's biggest contributor to prime office space absorption as well as employment generation. Pune has to date been Maharashtra's strongest performers after Mumbai in terms of IT/ITeS-spurred growth," Bajaj said.

Kharadi, one of the most important IT/ITeS locations in Pune, is home to major global IT and business process outsourcing companies, JLL India said.

Chennai Angels to invest Rs 2.5 crores in Agile Parking Solutions

The Chennai Angels today announced an investment of Rs 2.5 crores in smart parking technology startup Agile Parking Solutions (Get My Parking). 


The New Delhi based StartUp founded by Chirag Jain and Rasik Pansare aims to solve the rising parking problems and has created cloud based mobile parking technology making real time parking information accessible for both supply and demand side. 

"Automotive customers now seek real-time solutions and a triangulation of location, service aggregation, payments and community shared feedback to delight their personal journeys with. The GMP team is driving towards a platform to delight its customers," said Sudhir Rao of IndusAge Partners who led the investment. "Within eight months of commercial operations, they are at the cusp of servicing over a million transactions a month in the NCR region alone", he pointed out. 

The mobile app allows users to search, book and navigate to parking saving them the trouble of driving around in search of space. The user gets a bird's eye view of all the legal parking lots with map of locations, availability, pricing and other details and gets assured parking with cashless payment and navigation. 

"The exponential rise in demand for parking space is crippling the urban infrastructure and causing needless congestion. We believe only technology and data driven solutions can solve this chronic problem with efficient use of existing parking space," said Chirag Jain, cofounder of the company. 

With a 25 member team the startup follows a data-centric approach that could help in giving better insights into urban traffic landscape. By saving time, fuel and energy, the technology is believed to help reduce urban traffic congestion and consequent pollution by up to 30%.

Monday 2 May 2016

Paytm ropes in Wipro for payments bank business

Wipro will implement core technology solutions for Paytm’s payments bank business, which is expected to be rolled out in the second half of 2016.


Wipro will implement core technology solutions for Paytm’s payments bank business, which is expected to be rolled out in the second half of 2016.
Mobile wallet and e-commerce company Paytm (One97 Communications Ltd), led by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, received in August an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to set up a payments bank.
According to the company, Wipro will also manage integration of other key systems such as anti-money laundering solution and regulatory reporting solution, and will play a crucial role in helping Paytm interface its existing systems with the core banking solution. Wipro is also expected to put in place and manage data centers for the payments bank to ensure smooth functioning of the new unit, Paytm said in a statement.
Shinjini Kumar, CEO designate (Paytm Bank), said: “They (Wipro) have a demonstrated track record in banking technology in India that will be important in ensuring that our innovative solutions are integrated with core banking systems in a compliant and secure manner, creating the right platform for service delivery at large scale. We are a young and agile organisation and the Wipro team has demonstrated agility and flexibility that will be necessary to make this partnership meaningful.”
Payment banks can accept demand deposits and savings bank deposits from individuals and small businesses, up to a maximum of R1 lakh per account. The company had last year set aside $250 million for the payment banking business. It is planning to recruit around 3,000 people for the new business unit.
Paytm has hired Saurabh Sharma, a former Airtel executive, to head merchant and agent acquisition and Vikas Purohit, formerly with Amazon India, to lead banking operations.
Soumitro Ghosh, president, India & Middle East markets, Wipro, said, “Paytm is making steady strides towards its larger vision of financial inclusion in the country. Its payments bank is another step in this direction and we are happy to partner with them in their endeavour.”
Paytm, the consumer brand of mobile internet company One97 Communications with 120 million wallet users, is funded by Ant Financials (AliPay), Alibaba Group, SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank.

Indiabulls Real Estate Cuts Debt By 16% to Rs 4,617 Crore In FY16

New Delhi: Indiabulls Real Estate reduced its net debt 16 per cent to Rs 4,617 crore during the last fiscal year, helped by a positive operating cash-flow.



In an analyst presentation, the Mumbai-based developer said the company achieved a net debt of Rs 4,617 crore as of March 31, as against the target of Rs 4,800 crore.

"Sixteen per cent year-on-year reduction in net debt during FY16. Overall reduced net debt by Rs 863 crore during FY16, down to Rs 4,617 crore on March 31, 2016, from Rs 5,480 crore as on March 31, 2015," Indiabulls Real Estate said.

The company has a target to cut net debt to Rs 3,300 crore by March next year.

During 2015-16, the company's promoters made an equity infusion of Rs 538 crore. Sales bookings of the firm stood at Rs 626 crore during the quarter ended March 31.

Indiabulls Real Estate also said it plans to launch two projects with a total saleable area of 7.29 million square feet, of which 5.06 million square feet would be housing.

The company is developing 11 projects with a total saleable area of 30.51 million square feet. It has presence in key metros of Mumbai, Chennai and the NCR. The company has entered the London property market through acquisition of 22, Hanover Square in Mayfair, Central London, a 87,444 square feet commercial property in July 2014.

On land bank, the company informed it has fully paid land bank of 1,017 acres in key cities across India which is sufficient for proposed development over the next seven years. It also possesses 2,588 acres of SEZ land at Nashik, Maharashtra.

Last week, Indiabulls Real Estate had reported a 23 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 305.04 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs 248.08 crore in the preceding fiscal year.

Total income of the company increased to Rs 2,785.84 crore from Rs 2,736.60 crore in 2014-15.

Sun Capital

RBI proposes rules to regulate P2P lending

The much awaited and widely acclaimed Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 comes into force tomorrow i.e May 1, 2016 setting in motion the process of making necessary operational rules and creation of institutional infrastructure for protecting the interests of consumers and promoting the growth of real estate sector in an environment of trust, confidence, credible transactions and efficient and time bound execution of projects.   


            Ministry of Housing & Urban  Poverty Alleviation has notified 69 of the total 92 sections of the Act on Wednesday this week bringing the Act into force from May 1,2016 culminating the eight year long efforts in this regard. A proposal for a law for Real Estate was first mooted at the National Conference of Housing Ministers of States and Union Territories in January, 2009.

            As per the notification announcing the commencement of the Act on May 1,2016, Rules under the Act have to be formulated by the Central and State Governments within a maximum period of six months i.e by October 31,2016 under Section 84 of the Act. Ministry of HUPA would make Rules for  Union Territories without legislatures while the Ministry of Urban Development would do so for Delhi.

            Section 84 of the Act stipulates that “The appropriate Government shall, within a period of six months of the commencement of this Act, by notification, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act.”

            Early setting up of Real Estate Regulatory Authorities with whom all real estate projects have to be registered and Appellate Tribunals for adjudication of disputes is the key for providing early relief and protection to the large number of buyers of properties.

            Section 20 of the Act says “The appropriate Government shall, within a period of one year from the date of coming into force of this Act, by notification establish an authority to be known as the Real Estate Regulatory Authority to exercise the powers conferred on it and to perform the functions assigned to it under this Act”. These Authorities decide on the complaints of buyers and developers in 60 days time.

            Section 20 of this Act also empowers appropriate Governments to designate any officer preferably Secretary of the Department dealing with Housing, as the interim Regulatory Authority until the establishment of Regulatory Authority under the provisions of the Act.

            Regulatory Authorities, upon their constitution get three months time to formulate regulations concerning their day to  day functioning under Section 85 of the Act.

            Likewise, under Section 43 of the Act, Real Estate Appellate Tribunals shall be formed within a maximum period of one year i.e by April 30,2017. These fast track Tribunals shall decide on the disputes over the orders of Regulatory Authorities in 60 days time.

            Under the directions of the Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu, a Committee chaired by Secretary (HUPA) has already commenced work on formulation of Model Rules under the Act for the benefit of States and UTs so that they could come out with Rules in quick time besides ensuring uniformity across the country. The Ministry will also will come out with Model Regulations for Regulatory Authorities to save on time.

            The time limits of six months for formulation of Rules and one year for setting up Regulatory Authorities and Appellate Tribunals are the outer limit and the States willing to act quickly could do so and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation would notify the remaining Sections of the Act to enable relief to the buyers under the Act as quickly as possible, as desired by Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu.

            The remaining 22 Sections to be notified relate to functions and duties of promoters, rights and duties of allottees, prior registration of real estate projects with Real Estate Regulatory Authorities, recovery of interest on penalties, enforcement of orders, offences, penalties and adjudication, taking cognizance of offences etc.

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