Piramal Fin aims to raise up to USD 1 bln in foreign loans every year

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) Non-bank lender Piramal Finance plans to borrow up to USD 1 billion every year from foreign sources as it seeks to diversify its funding sources, a top official has said.

The company has raised USD 350 million from IFC and ADB and is in advanced talks to secure another USD 150 million from a multilateral funding agency over the next three weeks, its Chief Executive and Managing Director Jairam Sridharan said.

"We plan to continue to raise USD 500 million-1 billion from foreign sources across multiple routes every year," Sridharan said.

In FY25, it had raised USD 800 million through external commercial borrowings and bond issue routes, but had not raised any money from foreign sources in FY26 given the rate cuts which made local borrowing cheaper, he added.

The landed cost of funds in rupee terms, including hedging costs for the latest issuances, is in the range of 8–8.5 per cent, as against the incremental funding cost of 8.75-8.80 per cent for funding from domestic markets, He said, adding that this is accretive from a net interest margins perspective.

However, not every foreign issuances will be NIM accretive, Sridharan said, adding that such issuances are necessary from a diversity of funding sources perspective.

The company has a target to get 12-15 per cent of its overall liabilities from foreign sources, he said, adding that this will be across all routes.

The latest funding from multilateral agencies which will be repaid over five years is important for the company because another avenue of fund raise gets opened.

Piramal Finance scrip was trading 1.07 per cent down at Rs 1,828.4 on the BSE at 1151 hrs as against gains of 0.15 per cent on the benchmark. PTI AA DR DR