UK’s CDC Group in all likelihood to invest over Rs100 crore in Veritas Finance

Mumbai: CDC Group Plc, the UK authorities’ development finance group, is in advanced talks to invest over Rs100 crore in Veritas Finance Pvt. Ltd, which lends to micro and small establishments, said two people privy to the development.

Chennai-based Total Veritas Finance became registered as a non-banking financial company (NBFC) through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October 2015. In December, Mint suggested that Veritas enter the marketplace to raise the price range.

The business enterprise started with an initial capital of Rs13.60 crore. It raised additional fairness of Rs30 crore from Lok Capital and others, along with Caspian Impact Investment Adviser, in a Series A spherical of fund-elevating in 2016.

“Veritas has been in talks with CDC Group, and the deal is predicted to be closed soon. They are anticipating some approvals,” said one of the humans noted above, asking for anonymity as he isn’t legal to speak with journalists.

He added that the employer will use the price range to boost its mortgage book and network.

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In December, D. Arulmany, coping with a director and chief govt at Veritas, informed Mint that the business enterprise is trying to close the monetary year 2016-17 with a mortgage e-book of Rs100 crore.

Veritas normally focuses on providing medium—and long-term credit to micro-businesses. Its average mortgage length is Rs4 lakh. Veritas’s standard clients–small and micro marketers who run bakeries, eating places, and provision stores—earn from Rs25,000 to Rs60,000 monthly without previous exposure to formal enterprise finance.

Emails despatched to D. Arulmany regarding the director and leader of government at Veritas did not elicit any reaction. CDC does now not touch upon unique transactions, said Srini Nagarajan, head of South Asia at CDC Group, in an electronic mail response.

Delhi-based NBFC Aye Finance Pvt. Ltd, which operates in the same space as Veritas Finance, raised approximately 70 crore in November in a Series B round of investment led by LGT Impact Ventures. Existing traders SAIF Partners and Accion also participated in the round.

CDC Group has been a lively investor in non-public creditors, specializing in providing financial offerings to bottom-of-the-pyramid customers and small companies.

In January 2016, CDC invested $50 million (about Rs.330 crore) as tier II capital in the microfinance group Janalakshmi Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, an erstwhile microfinance group that is now a small finance bank.

CDC’s microfinance bets in India consist of Equitas Holdings Ltd, Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, and Utkarsh Micro Finance Ltd.

It invested $16 million in Chennai-based microfinance employer Equitas Holdings in 2013.

Varanasi-primarily based Utkarsh Micro Finance raised $21 million (Rs135 crore) in a Series D round of investment in 2014, led by CDC and local impact funding company Lok Capital.

In 2016, it participated in Ujjivan Financial Services’ Rs600 crore fund-raising with different investors, including CX Partners Fund I Ltd, NewQuest Asia Investments II Bajaj Holdings, and Investment Ltd.

Equitas, Ujjivan, and Utkarsh acquired the Reserve Bank of India’s in-principle approval to transform into small finance banks in September 2015.

John R. Wright
Social media ninja. Freelance web trailblazer. Extreme problem solver. Music fanatic. Spent several months marketing pubic lice in the financial sector. Spent 2002-2008 supervising the production of ice cream in Africa. Had some great experience developing robotic shrimp in the aftermarket. Spent several years getting my feet wet with puppets in Miami, FL. Was quite successful at supervising the production of corncob pipes worldwide. What gets me going now is working with electric trains in Mexico.