India’s Piramal Finance targets $1.67 billion of preferably local borrowing by March

MUMBAI: Indian non-bank lender Piramal Finance aims to raise around 150 billion rupees ($1.67 billion) in the December-March period, focusing mostly on local borrowing, a company official said.

The company aims to raise 300 billion rupees in the current financial year, about half of which has been borrowed already, said chief executive officer and managing director Jairam Sridharan.

40% of the borrowing will be via bank loans, with the rest a combination of local bonds, external borrowings, securitisation and loans from multilateral agencies, he said.

Piramal Finance, a non-deposit taking finance company, aims to take its assets under management beyond 1 trillion rupees by end of March from 900 billion rupees in September.

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The company may opt for $500 million to $800 million via external commercial borrowing or multilateral agencies in the next four months, but may stay away from dollar bonds.

“Local currency bond funding has been cheaper than dollar bonds this year, so currently it does make sense to go for dollar bonds,” Sridharan said.