Piramal Group plans to scale up retail lending business in 5 years

Piramal Group on Tuesday said the company is planning to scale up its lending business into wholesale and retail over the next five years.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Tanvir Gill, chairman Ajay Piramal said the company aims to split the lending business into two-thirds retail and one-third wholesale in the next 5 years. The company currently lends 60 percent to wholesale and 40 percent to retail.

Piramal said the NBFC business has undergone a transformation. Last year, the company did a merger with DHFL which was one of the largest home loan companies in the country.

"DHFL is a company which had gone bankrupt. It was the first company that was referred by the RBI to the bankruptcy courts. Our business of lending which was earlier mainly towards wholesale is now being diversified into wholesale as well as retail. So the lending business today is about 40 percent retail and 60 percent wholesale," he said.

Further, Piramal said the company would be targeting retail customers in tier-II and tier-III cities who are not easily reached by banks and other large NBFCs.

He said retail is very competitive and the company is going to those customers who are not easily reached by banks and other large NBFCs.

"For instance, in the housing loans, the company does not go to the major cities or to the prime customers. The company will go to tier-II and tier-III cities where we can assess the risk well, where there are people who have the credit worthiness to take home loans but who are not easily reached by banks and the larger NBFCs. So our strategy is to go into more and more tier-II, tier-III cities with the use of technology and distribution," he added.