Inditrade Group looks to grow inorganically

Kolkata: Inditrade Group is actively working on the acquisition plans to grow faster and is looking to raise about Rs 200 crore to expand its different business units.

The group plans to grow aggressively to raise stakes among the micro and small borrowers. The capital will be raised in a combination of equity and debt, group chairman Sudip Bandyopadhyay told ET.


“We will continue to actively look for both organic and inorganic growth to grow rapidly,” Bandyopadhyay said.

However, Inditrade Capital’s attempt to acquire a majority stake in microfinance firm Varam Capital has fallen flat as negotiations failed. Inditrade Capital floated Inditrade Microfinance as its wholly owned subsidiary in April last year.

Bandyopadhyay said that Inditrade Capital’s non-banking unit may be raising about Rs 100 crore of tier-I capital and another Rs 30-50 crore of tier-II debt s it looks to scale up its agri-commodityfinancing business about five times to Rs 1,000 crore.

Inditrade Microfinance, on the other hand, may raise Rs 35 crore equity along with Rs 20-30 crore tier-II debt as growth capital. It has set a target of achieving Rs 500 crore loan by the end of this fiscal from about Rs100 crore now. The microfinance unit is wholly owned by Inditrade Capital.

The company is planning these fund raising exercises in the second half of the fiscal.

Meanwhile, the group is all set to venture into the business of merchant cash advances (MCA) to small traders and shopkeepers in Mumbai while state-run banks slam doors on them and private banks hesitate to fund.

This will be unsecured working capital loans with one to two year term. The ticket size will be ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. It has received all necessary approvals for this business. The group plans to expand this in cities such as Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kochi in the course of the year.

“We seek to expand and introduce organized finance to benefit both our company and borrowers from hitherto unserved or underserved segments of the financial sector,” Bandyopadhyay said.

The group has also started groundwork to foray into affordable housing finance.