Manappuram Finance, the second largest gold loan company in the country, is toying with the idea of hiving off and taking its microfinance arm Asirwad Microfinance public within a year, a top company official said.
With a loan portfolio of over Rs 5,360 crore and close to 25 lakh customers across 23 states, the Chennai-headquartered Asirvad is the fourth largest microfinance lender in the country in terms of the loan book.
Founded in 2008 by S V Raja Vaidyanathan, Asirvad was taken over by Manappuram in February 2015 for Rs 48.63 crore. The V P Nandakumar-led company first bought 71 per cent stake which was later increased to 95 per cent and the rest is with the founder Vaidyanathan.
Under Manappuram, Asirvad has grown leaps and bounds.
From a loan book of just Rs 300 crore and a few lakh customers across 115 branches in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka when it was bought over, the company has over 1,030 branches across 314 districts in 23 states (excluding Andhra Pradesh and ...
