Mumbai: Muthoot Homefin (India) Ltd. (MHIL), Muthoot Finance's wholly owned housing finance subsidiary, announced that it aims to improve its leadership in order to become the most trusted institution that enriches the lives of lower middle-income (LMI) households by providing formal housing finance and achieving financial inclusion.
Alok Aggarwal joined MHIL as its new CEO after previously serving as the MD & CEO of National Trust Housing Finance Ltd. He will oversee MHIL's future growth plan as its new CEO and address the enormous unmet demand for retail home loans. He will also be concentrating on growing the home financing industry, particularly in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Speaking on the appointment of Aggarwal, Muthoot Finance chairman George Jacob Muthoot said, “There exists a significant gap between the housing demand and availability of housing finance to the underbanked/marginalised section. Muthoot Homefin remains focused on bridging this divide and fulfilling the housing dreams of people at the bottom of the pyramid. The pandemic also further reinforced the need for housing, with real estate emerging as a resilient asset class. As a result, the demand for retail housing loans has continued to witness strong traction. With Aggarwal joining the leadership team, we aim to capitalise on his expertise to spearhead the growth in housing finance business and also contribute significantly towards the Government’s mission of ‘Housing for All’.”
With 20 years of expertise under his belt, Aggarwal has produced outstanding results and enhanced the performance of the businesses in a variety of markets, including mortgage, auto loans, personal loans, and retail investment products.
He is a veteran who has experience in establishing relationships with all stakeholders, including regulators, commercial banks, rating agencies, board members, peers in the sector, and employees. He is well-versed in the rules and policies under the NHB and RBI standards.
Aggarwal formerly held executive positions with companies like Equitas Bank, Fullerton India HFC, Magma Housing Finance, Lodha Group, and Tata Capital.
Aggarwal earned his MBA from the ICFAI Business School in Hyderabad as well as a bachelor's degree in commerce with honours from the University of Delhi.
Commenting on the new role, Aggarwal said, “I am thankful and excited to become a part of the Muthoot Group and lead Muthoot Homefin. The Muthoot Group is trusted widely and being a part of the larger Muthoot group ecosystem, Muthoot Homefin can leverage on the strong brand presence of the parent, its reach to over four crore customer base and also access to lower cost of funds. While we are seeing increasing demand trends across many states, demand remains strong especially in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. The collection efficiency was largely stable during the pandemic, and hopefully with no fresh waves on the horizon, we expect healthy collection efficiency in the upcoming quarters. From an AUM of Rs 1,420 crore, we aim to grow our loan book at 10-15 per cent by the end of FY23. We further plan to improve our branch penetration across the remote locations in the country by opening 50 new branches in FY2023. Apart from a strong offline presence, we will also be actively tapping tech-savvy customers with our strong digital presence.”
“We remain committed towards growing and supporting the housing finance business of Muthoot Homefin. Although the demand for housing loans has been steady during the pandemic, we had adopted a cautious stance towards growing the housing finance business due to the challenges customers faced on the cash flow front. Now with the pandemic behind us, we are witnessing buoyancy in the affordable housing sector across all the key states that we are present in. Given the improvement in the overall operating environment, we aim to further tap the opportunity in the retail housing segment and grow the business. It is a great pleasure to onboard Aggarwal as the CEO and I am confident that his vast experience in leading the housing finance segment in previous organisations will help us in becoming a leading player in this space. I am happy that he joins our team at a really good time as we are focused on expanding our services to new geographies and customers,” said Muthoot Finance managing director George Alexander Muthoot.
MHIL’s loan portfolio stood at Rs 1,420 crore as of H1 FY23. Total revenue for Q2 FY23 stood at Rs 39 crore, and profit after tax was Rs 2 crore for the same period. MHIL’s credit rating has been upgraded to AA+/stable by Crisil Ltd., which will allow them to raise funds even more competitively and further pass on the benefits to their end customers to help them own their dream home.
