Reliance MF beats demonetisation blues; AUM up 25%

Mumbai: Beating demonetisation blues, financial services major Reliance Capital saw its mutual fund business register 25 percent surge in Assets Under Management to Rs 1.95 lakh crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal and said it is on track to list home finance unit by April.

Reliance Mutual Fund also registered an 8 per cent growth in profit to Rs 151 crore with a 10 per cent increase in the total number of SIPs (Systematic Investment Plans) during the October-December quarter of 2016-17.

Reliance Capital said that notwithstanding the slowdown in business that followed immediately after the demonetisation announcement by the government, the company has been able to register growth across all its businesses.

All our businesses have shown positive growth despite the government announcing demonetisation and its consequential impact on markets and business in the quarter.

"While our mutual fund business gained from demonetisation and registered a 25 per cent growth in AAUM, our General Insurance, Broking and Distribution have shown surge in profits during the quarter. Demonetisation did not have any impact on both our lending businesses that showed growth during the quarter," Reliance Capital MD and CEO Sam Ghosh said.

Reliance Home Finance, which recently raised over Rs 3,000 crore from investors by way of NCDs issue, registered profit of Rs 35 crore while the commercial finance business, which focuses on SME lending, registered profits of Rs 80 crore during the quarter.

"We had announced listing of its Housing Finance Business - wherein Reliance Capital would retain 51 per cent shareholding and the 49 per cent stake would be offered to existing investors by offering one free share of RHF for every one share held in Reliance Capital.

"We propose to complete this exercise by April 2017," Ghosh said.

He also said the company plans to demerge its Commercial Finance business into a separate subsidiary was on track and would be completed in this fiscal.

"Our plans to demerge Commercial Finance business and convert Reliance Capital into a Core Investment Company are on track. We propose to complete this demerger and conversion by the end of current fiscal," Ghosh said.

Reliance Capital saw a turnaround in its General Insurance Business while broking and distribution business also registered a significant jump in its profit to Rs 14 crore during this quarter.

Regarding mutual fund, the company said it will continue to focus on increasing participation from beyond top 15 cities with a healthy increase in SIPs, that registered a 10 per cent increase to 16 lakh during the quarter.

It further said there was no impact of demonetisation on the two lending businesses - Commercial Finance and Housing Finance - as they continue to register healthy growth with no increase in NPAs.

Home Finance registered Rs 35 crore profit while Commercial finance registered profit of Rs 80 crore during the quarter.