Piramal group | Business Upturn

Piramal Group names Jairam Sridharan as DHFL Managing Director: report

Cheryll Jain — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 08:26:23 +0000

Indian billionaire Ajay Piramal-led Piramal Enterprise has named Jairam Sridharan as the managing director of its newly acquired entity Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL), CNBC-TV 18 reported on Friday, October 8.

This news comes just weeks after the Piramal had successfully completed DHFL’s acquisition on September 29 for a total consideration of Rs. 34,350. As part of the acquisition, DHFL was to merge with Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Ltd. with Piramal Enterprise having 100 per cent ownership of the merged entity.

Currently, Jairam Sridharan is the chief executive officer of Piramal Retail Finance, including the housing finance arm of the Piramal Group. With a career spanning over two decades, he has held a diverse range of domestic and international retail finance roles.

Prior to his position at Piramal Group, he had been in charge of a range of roles at Axis Bank. As the President, Retail Lending & Payments at Axis Bank, he was engaged with propelling growth in the retail lending and payments businesses comprising retail lending products such as home and personal loans, cards business (credit, debit & prepaid) and the agriculture & rural lending business. In his five-year tenure, Axis Bank emerged as one of the top five retail lending institutions in the country.

Before being part of Axis Bank, he was associated with USA-based consumer bank Capital One finance as the Head – ‘New to Credit’ Card Acquisitions in their US Cards Business.

At the origin of his career with ICICI Bank, where he served as Head of the bank’s Business Intelligence Unit, he has been credited with having a crucial role in their initial venture into the retail lending businesses.

Piramal Group acquires DHFL for ₹38,000 crores

Cheryll Jain — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 07:17:06 +0000

The Piramal Group, led by Indian Billionaire Ajay Piramal, has successfully completed the acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL) on Wednesday, September 29. As part of the acquisition, the company will be paying a total consideration of Rs. 34,250 crores in cash and securities under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The Reserve Bank of India had put DHFL under the bankruptcy process in November 2019.

“We are very pleased to announce the consideration payment made towards the completion of this exciting acquisition. This accelerates our plans to become a leading digitally oriented, diversified financial services conglomerate that focuses on serving the financial needs of the unserved and underserved customers of our country. An important characteristic of any advanced economy is a robust insolvency code. The landmark bankruptcy reforms have made it possible to solve complex resolutions like this in a more complete and timely way,” said Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Group.

In a statement sent to the exchanges, it was announced that out of Rs. 34,250 crores to be paid by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Ltd. (PCHFL), Rs 14,700 crores is a cash component while Rs 19,550 crores in the form of non-convertible debentures (10-year NCDs at 6.75% p.a. on a half-yearly basis).

A total of Rs. 3,800 crores will be paid to the creditors out of DHFL’s cash balance, making the total amount recovered by DHFL creditors close to Rs. 38,000 crores. This marks the first and the biggest resolution in value terms in the financial services sector under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

“There were 70,000 creditors of DHFL and most of them are recovering nearly 46 per cent of their pending dues through the successful completion of the resolution process”, the regulatory filing further added.

According to Piramal’s resolution plan, which received the green light of around 94% of the creditors in a voting process, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Ltd. (PCHFL) will merge with DHFL with Piramal Enterprises Limited having 100 per cent ownership of the merged entity.

RBI approves Piramal Enterprises’ takeover of DHFL

Arnav Dogra — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 10:16:44 +0000

According to anonymous sources, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given approval to billionaire Ajay Piramal’s Piramal Group for the takeover of the bankrupt Home Loan firm Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), Moneycontrol reported.

DHFL is now working on a proposal which will be taken to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in a few days where the legalities of the acquisition will be worked upon.

This update has come only a month after the Piramal Group won the auction to take over Dewan Housing in which it was contending against Oaktree, an American asset management company. Although Oaktree’s bid was the highest at Rs 35,700 crore compares to Piramal’s, which was at ₹32,250 crore, Piramal bagged the deal since it was offering higher upfront payment to creditors and equity infusion into DHFL.

The board of DHFL, in a meeting on January 15, voted in favour of Piramal for the takeover. Piramal Enterprises was able to get more than 94% votes, while Oaktree was lagging far behind at 45% votes, followed by another bidder, Adani Capital, at 18% votes.

DHFL had declared bankruptcy in 2018, when its losses reached record high due to the then-ongoing liquidity crunch in the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) sector.

Piramal Enterprise share price shoots up over 4%

Arnav Dogra — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 08:23:28 +0000

The share price of Piramal Enterprise Ltd shot up today and was trading up at 4.07% at 1:13 PM (IST).
The share had last closed at Rs 1404.55 on 1st February and it was able to reach an intraday high of Rs 1461.70 with its intraday low being Rs 1404.0.

The company had reported overall net sales of Rs 3301.84 crore during the Q2 results, which was up by 12.41% compared to previous quarter’s Rs 2937.34 crore.

The stock traded reflected a higher P/E ratio of 654.66 which indicated that the investors were willing to pay a higher price in anticipation of better growth in the coming future. Price-to-book value at 0.73 reflected the true value of the firm and proved that the investors were ready to pay even for no growth in the business.

As of the quarter ending December 2020, the domestic institutional investors held 1.26% of stake in the company, while foreign institutional investors held 28.59%.
The promoter holdings were reported at 46.06%.

The net profit for the last quarter stood at Rs 628.31 crore, up 13.27 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.

Piramal voted as preferred bidder for DHFL, most contested bankruptcy bid

Sanah Shah — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:20:14 +0000

For the beleaguered mortgage lender, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), Piramal Group has appeared as a preferred bidder at the end of voting by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) as on 15th January 2021. The bid received almost 94% votes in favour of Ajay Piramal, Chairman Piramal Group, followed by Oaktree at 45%. Adani Capital captured 18%.

The bidding war has been going on since months with Piramal Group and Oaktree Capital being at the head of the race in the final round. Piramal Enterprises is an Indian expanded conglomerate, whereas, Oaktree is an American asset management company. They both made bids in the range of Rs 37,000 – 38,000 crore. The cash components have been almost identical, at approximately Rs 17,000 crore each.

Throughout the entire process of bidding, the Piramals maintained their stance that the bid had an upper hand over Oaktree due to various reasons.

Apart from the financial part, creditors evaluated the non-financial aspect such as regulatory compliance, company track records and future action plan and so on. This was said by officials who are aware of the matter.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that Piramal appears to have a clear edge over Oaktree.

DHFL broke under the weight of an extreme liquidity crunch after the collapse of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) in late 2018. They consequently couldn’t recover from the low point and became bankrupt.

Lamenting further, investigations were launched against the Wadhawans on different charges related to financial irregularities and shocking nexus with the underworld regarding particular real estate transactions. DHFL was pushed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in December 2019. After that, the creditors to the company have attempted for a resolution.

DHFL is obliged to pay around Rs 91,000 crore to its creditors. State Bank of India is the biggest creditor with an exposure of Rs 10,000 crore. Some other lenders include Bank of India, Canara Bank, NHB, Union Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and Bank of Baroda.

DHFL bid: Oaktree Cap emerges as the highest bidder with Rs 32,700 crore

Shalmali Bhagwat — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 06:47:32 +0000

As reported by Mint, global alternative asset investor Oaktree Capital Management has stepped in the spotlight as the highest bidder for bankrupt Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL), overtaking Adani Enterprises Ltd and Piramal Group, two people aware of the matter said. Oaktree Capital offered to pay Rs 32,700 crore in the fourth round of bidding for mortgage lender DHFL’s entire portfolio, followed by Piramal with Rs 32,350 crore and Adani Enterprises with Rs 29,860 crore, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

The revised bids were asked for after the Adani group made an unsolicited offer to buy the entire company instead of the select assets it had bid for earlier. S.C. Lowy, which had earlier bid for DHFL’s assets, did not revise with the submission of a fresh bid. The Adani group also made a separate offer to purchase the wholesale and slum rehabilitation projects controlled by DHFL. Piramal, too, submitted a separate bid for DHFL’s retail assets.

Meanwhile, former DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan on Monday has renewed the previous offer for the company. In a letter addressed to the DHFL administrator, Wadhawan said he could fully repay all creditors in 7-8 years, with an upfront payment of Rs 9,000 crore. “If the bids received for Dewan Housing Finance Corp continue to be as low as they were previously, I would request the committee of creditors to consider my settlement proposal instead, rather than permit Dewan Housing Finance Corp to be sold for a song,” he said.

Under his proposal, settlements will commence from the fiscal year 2022 and will guarantee the completion of stalled projects to recover dues in the wholesale business. Later, the company will focus on fresh retail loans, the letter said.

Dewan Housing’s outstanding loan book is valued at ₹67,000 crore, which includes wholesale loans worth ₹40,000 crore, retail loans worth ₹17,000 crore and delinquent loans worth ₹10,000 crore. The company went into administration in November last year, after the Reserve Bank of India instructed lenders to initiate proceedings.

Piramal to exit if Adani Group wins DHFL bid

Akanksha Yadav — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 05:07:48 +0000

Adani Group’s last-minute surprise bid during the Diwali weekend for DHFL’s entire assets has upset the Piramal group, which has threatened to exit the race altogether if Adani Group’s bid is accepted. Adani has pipped Oaktree and Piramal by bidding higher than them, as earlier, they had bid only for the wholesale book.

In the bids submitted earlier, Oaktree had bid Rs 31,000 crore for the entire company whereas Piramal had bid Rs 25,000 crore for the retail books of DHFL. Adani had bid around Rs 3,000 crore for the book of the wholesale/slum redevelopment authority. But in the unexpected turn of events, Adani decided to bid Rs 250 crores more than Oaktree for the entire DHFL.

The Piramal Group, who have been caught off guard by the development, has requested the committee of creditors to disregard Adani Group’s new offer and has threatened to seek legal redressal if that is not done.

Bankers have stated that they are not excited by the offers of Piramal and Oaktree and would prefer a bidder who puts up more money into it. Besides, the offer put forward by Oaktree that it is liable to withdraw from the process anytime if it finds any loopholes in the books has kept the bankers worried.

“Oaktree was offering only around Rs 1,000 crore upfront fromits pocket while the rest was DHFL’s cash, to be given after a few years. The banks would prefer a buyer who can offer a higher cash component now,” a banker acquainted with the developments stated.

Carlyle group acquires 20% stake in Piramal pharma valued at $490 million

Nishi Trivedi — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 11:13:07 +0000

The Carlyle Group, a global investment company, is said to make an investment of 490 million dollars in Piramal Pharma, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited. Therefore, gaining a 20 percent stake in the pharma company.

In a filing on June 27, the company said that the transaction values the pharma business at an enterprise value of 2.7 billion dollars along with an upside component of up to 360 million dollars depending on the firm’s performance in FY21.

Further, the company in the filing stated that based on the EV, exchange rate, and pharma net debt as on March 31, 2020, the estimated equity investment for Carlyle’s 20 percent stake in the company would amount to 490 million dollars.

Moreover, the final amount of equity investment will be subject to the net debt, exchange rate, and performance against the pre-agreed conditions at the time of sealing the deal.

As per the filing, Piramal Pharma will comprise Piramal Pharma Solutions, end-to-end contract development, and manufacturing business; Piramal Critical Care, a complex hospital generics business selling specialized products across 100 countries; Consumer Products Division, a consumer healthcare business selling over-the-counter products in India; and PEL’s investment in the joint venture with Allergan India, a leader in ophthalmology in the domestic market and Convergence Chemicals Private Limited.

“This is an affirmation of the strength of our ability to build new, attractive, and scalable businesses with a significant runway for continued organic growth and opportunities for consolidation. This infusion of funds will further strengthen our balance sheet and provide us with a war chest for the next phase of our strategy,” said Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited.

“We are excited to work with the company’s experienced management team and will leverage our global network, extensive knowledge of the healthcare sector, and operating experience to seek to expand its platform, develop strategic opportunities and facilitate broader market access,” said Neeraj Bharadwaj, Managing Director, Carlyle Asia Partners advisory team.

The company stated in the filing that this transaction is estimated to conclude in 2020 and is one of the biggest private equity deals in the Indian pharmaceutical sector. However, it is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.