Tata Capital to enter home loans business

K.R.Srivats

New Delhi, Aug 1 Tata Capital Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Limited, plans to enter the booming home loan market by March 2009, its Managing Director and CEO, Mr Praveen P Kadle, has said.

“Although we will be a late entrant in this market, we see good business opportunities in offering home loans. We hope to start this by March next year”, Mr Kadle said here.

Tata Capital, a non-banking finance company, had commenced its operations in 2007. This had marked the entry of Tata Group into a host of new financial services. Currently, the company was capitalised at about Rs 2,000 crore and offered suite of products across multiple financial domains—personal loans, car loans, distribution and broking, wealth management, SME Finance, capital markets, private equity and infrastructure finance.

PE Fund

Mr Kadle also said that Tata Capital would by end-September launch its first private equity fund targeted at opportunities in mid-sized companies. While the size of the fund was yet to be finalised, indications are that the initial fund size may be around $ 250 million. Plans are afoot to also launch a venture capital fund focusing on the technology space (information technology/telecom).

Currently, the balance sheet size of Tata Capital is around Rs 4,000 crore. On whether the company would look at inorganic growth, Mr Kadle noted that most of the opportunities here were expensive. “Indian valuations are expensive. Inorganic growth may not be attractive, but that does not mean we will not look at inorganic growth”, he said.
Insurance broking

Meanwhile, Tata Capital would soon foray into insurance broking. “A subsidiary of Tata Motors has got licence for insurance broking from IRDA. This company would eventually come under Tata Capital. We will also get into commodities broking soon”, Mr Kadle said.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/02/stories/2008080252280600.htm