The country's top education loans financier, HDFC Credila Financial Services, has shortlisted five investment banks as advisors as it gears up to float a big-bang initial public offer (IPO) in 2025, four persons in the know told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
"Following recent pitches with investment banks, HDFC Credila has picked Jefferies, Citi, Axis Capital, IIFL Capital & BofA Securites as advisors for the mega IPO," one of the persons told Moneycontrol.
Two other persons confirmed the above syndicate.
According to a fourth person familiar with the listing plans, depending on the extent of stake dilution by the investors, HDFC Credila could look to raise in excess of Rs 5,000 crore.
Last year in June, HDFC Credila was acquired by a consortium of Swedish investment giant EQT and home-grown private equity firm ChrysCapital from the HDFC Group.
The EQT-ChrysCapital combine owns a controlling stake while currently, HDFC Bank & South Korea's Shinhan Bank (picked up 11 percent in April) also hold minority stake in the non-bank education loan specialist.
When contacted, EQT declined to comment. Email queries to ChrysCapital and HDFC Bank remained unanswered at the time of publishing this article. The i-banks couldn't be reached for an immediate comment. This article will be updated as soon as we hear from these parties.
ET NOW was the first to report HDFC Credila's listing plans.
HDFC Credila is not the only education loans financier looking to tap the public markets.
On June 21, Mumbai-based Avanse Financial Services, which is promoted by Warburg Pincus and also backed by Kedaara Capital and IFC, filed draft papers with Sebi to raise Rs 3,500 crore via an IPO.
On January 3, Moneycontrol was the first to report that Avanse had picked 6 bankers to go public and raise up to Rs 4000 crore.
Also Read: ADIA may buy 10% of HDFC Credila from EQT Baring
A closer look at HDFC Credila
Since inception, HDFC Credila has funded 178,000+ Indian students pursuing 3,300+ programs across 4,600+ institutes in 63 countries, according to its website.
For the year ended March 31, 2024, HDFC Credila had a total income of Rs 2,771.04 crore and a profit after tax of Rs 528.84 crore.
As per its 2023-2024 annual report, education loans disbursed by the company increased by 76 per cent from Rs 7,992 crore in FY23 to Rs 14,089 crore in FY24 whereas the repayments of principal including pre-payments have increased by 23 percent from Rs 2,079 crore during the previous year to Rs 2,554 in FY24. The outstanding loan assets have grown by 84 per cent from Rs 15,298 crore in FY23 to Rs 28,187 crore in FY24.
"HDFC Credila focuses solely on education loans, with two main product categories - secured education loans and unsecured education loans. Currently, 21% of the Company’s education loans portfolio is secured while 79% is unsecured. Both these product categories continue to perform well, as indicated by the prime credit quality of the Company’s loan book," according to its annual report.
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