Karvy ex-CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi’s firm acquires listed Canopy Finance

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Purple Finance, a non-banking finance company led by Amitabh Chaturvedi, former chief executive of scam-hit Karvy Stock Broking, on April 5 announced a reverse merger with listed entity Canopy Finance Ltd (CPL).

This comes a couple of weeks after Chaturvedi told Moneycontrol that they were planning to acquire a listed entity to merge with and raise a couple of rounds of funds towards evolving into a digital small finance bank over 4-5 years.

Chaturvedi, who was earlier associated with the Essel group’s financial services business, Reliance Capital, ICICI Bank and Dhanalaxmi Bank, had recently stepped down from the boards of the Karvy group of entities.

Post-merger, the capital base of the merged entity will reach around Rs 30 crore and the merged entity, on completing listing formalities, intends to raise capital to strengthen its base using shares as a currency for growth.

In a statement, Purple Finance said it will be offering secured business loans ranging from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in the outskirts and tier-II cities of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha.

The NBFC said it was aspiring to make a difference to the MSME borrowers with simplified funding options and timely loan disbursements using a superior technology platform.

On its part, Canopy Finance’s managing director Lalit Kumar Tapadia informed the bourses that their board on April 5 considered and accorded its consent for merger by absorption of the company by Purple Finance by way of reserve merger under Sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013.