Home First Finance may add one more co-lending partner in FY25

Home First Finance Company India CEO Manoj Vishwanathan.

Home First Finance Company India may add another co-lending partner this financial year, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Manoj Viswanathan told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview.

"As of now, we have a plan to add one more co-lending partner and we are in talks with some state-owned and private banks," Viswanathan added.

At present, the housing finance company has co-lending partnerships with the Central Bank of India and Union Bank of India.

If the company can originate more co-lending, then at some point it may add more partners, Viswanathan said, adding, "But at this point, maybe one partner we may add in this fiscal."

Co-lending amounted to 3 percent of the company’s borrowing mix in the first quarter. In absolute terms, the total borrowing mix stood at Rs 9,512 crore. So, the co-lending book would be between Rs 250 crore and Rs 280 crore.

In the April-June quarter, the company conducted co-lending transactions of Rs 41.7 crore, higher than Rs 35 crore in the year-ago period. Sequentially, the transactions were down from Rs 67.6 crore in the January-March period.

Viswanathan said the company was planning to borrow Rs 4,500 crore, of which 3 percent would be through non-convertible debentures.

Its assets under management (AUM) are expected to grow 30 percent by the end of this fiscal, the CEO said.

At the end of the June quarter, the company managed assets worth Rs 10,478 crore, an annual growth of 34.8 percent.

Viswanathan also said Warburg Pincus was free to sell stake at any time and was looking to do one transaction a year.

"We will not be able to say whether they are going to do it this quarter, next quarter or next quarter. Broadly, they have said that once a year they will do. The last transaction they did in last November. So, it's up to people to understand when they may do the next transaction," Viswanathan said.

Earlier this month, media reports said Warburg Pincus may some stake in the Home First Finance Company.

In November, the global private equity player sold a 3.3 percent stake through subsidiary Orange Clove Investments BV for around Rs 251 crore.

It may offload at a bigger stake this time, though discussions were still in preliminary stages, reports said.