Credit & Finance for MSMEs: U GRO’s assets under management (AUM) amounted to Rs 2,969 crore as of March 31, 2022, up from Rs 1,317 crore as of March 31, 2021, representing a 125% rise year on year.
MSMEs’ Access to Credit and Finance: U GRO Capital, a small business lending platform, reported a 292% increase in profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 6.08 crore in the quarter ended March 2022, with a 114% increase in disbursements to Rs 963 crore and a 134% increase in total income to Rs 114.22 crore from the previous year. In Q4 FY21, the firm recorded a PAT of Rs 1.5 crore and a total income of Rs 48.6 crore.
“In order to support future growth ambitions, the firm has created formidable distribution power by ramping up its asset channels in FY22.” In a statement, Shachindra Nath, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital, stated, “We have been industry pioneers of the co-lending concept and have set course for transforming our business strategy to lending as a service.”
U GRO’s assets under management (AUM) rose to Rs 2,969 crore as of March 31, 2022, up from Rs 1,317 crore as of March 31, 2021, representing a 125% rise year on year. During the fiscal year 2021-22, it added 26 new lenders to its lender base, bringing the total to 55. The branch network grew to 91 by March 2022, with 57 new branches established. The overall disbursements of U GRO for FY22 were Rs 3,138 crore, a 173 percent increase from Rs 1,147 crore in FY21.
“January (disbursement) during the fourth quarter was low due to the third wave of the pandemic. There was also the second wave impact. Despite that, we are exiting FY22 at over Rs 3,000 crore and we would be continuing to grow month-on-month. So, if we are disbursing nearly Rs 400 crore a month, we would be at almost Rs 5,000 crore disbursements in FY23 which is around 1.5X growth,” Nath had told Financial Express Online in an interaction in April.
In terms of asset quality, U GRO’s portfolio gross non-performing asset (GNPA) and net NPA stood at 2.3 percent and 1.7 percent respectively as of March 31, 2022. The GNPA had decreased from 2.7 percent as of March 2021. Moreover, the company’s total debt stood at Rs 1,802 crore as of March 31, 2022, and “the overall debt to equity ratio still remains low at 1.86x, indicating a long runway for growth,” the company noted. Its total customer count as of March 2022 was around 20,000.
U GRO also announced the appointment of its existing Independent Director and former Chief Information Commissioner of India Satyananda Mishra as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company. Mishra was also the Chairman and Non-Executive Independent Director of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited from 2013 to 2016 and served as the Director of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) until 2018.
Attribution-Financial Express
