NBFC Not A Business For Cowboys, Says Outgoing Sundaram Finance Chief 

Ask TT Srinivasaraghavan, outgoing managing director of Sundaram Finance Ltd., what it takes to build a successful finance business and you won’t get an answer littered with financial jargon like RoA, NPA or ALM. The business he ran for a little less than two decades has delivered on all those parameters but, for TTS, as he is called, it is more basic than that.

“The NBFC business is not a business for cowboys,” Srinivasaraghavan tells BloombergQuint in an interview.

“Here, words like prudence and conservativism are really the things that should be valued. Glamourous and glitzy are not words that fit well in this business. The one thing that I keep sharing with my team is that their primary role is that of a custodian of public money,” he says.

Srinivasaraghavan, preparing to step down after 18 years as managing director and 38 years at the firm, has seen India’s financial sector go through many ups and downs, including the recent crises brought on by the collapse of IL&FS, DHFL and now the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over a 10-year period, assets under management have grown at a compounded annual rate of 9% to Rs 30,572 crore now. But it is not only about growth, it’s about ‘GQP’, Srinivasaraghavan says, adding a new moniker to the financial dictionary.

“Growth for growth’s sake is useless, it is only meaningful when it is accompanied by quality and profitability. So that is why chasing top line should never be the sole aim in an NBFC business. Top line [growth] is important but only when it is accompanied by quality and profitability, which is why GQP.”

Sundaraman Finance has maintained a AAA-rating, delivering a relatively steady return-on-assets backed by stable asset quality. Bad loans have remained close to 2%, although they have risen to 2.5% amid the Covid crisis and return on assets has been consistent at near 2%.

“Despite the domestic commercial vehicle segment facing headwinds due to the pandemic among other factors, Sundaram Finance’s return on assets are much higher compared to most of its peers' due to its conservative approach in lending and its consistent focus on asset quality over growth,” said Siji Philip, senior research analyst at Axis Securities.

Down Memory Lane

Srinivasaraghavan has been a Sundaram Finance lifer.

As a 28-year-old banker, while he was toying with the idea of becoming a school teacher, he came across a newspaper advertisement for the job of a marketing manager at Sundaram Finance. He applied and joined the company in 1983, leaving his teaching plans behind.

At the time, Sundaram Finance was a pure commercial vehicle financier. In the early 1980s, it entered the lease financing business. It was the first time that this was happening in India, Srinivasaraghavan says. “So, I came to Sundaram Finance, to join, what could have then be termed as an exciting startup opportunity.”

For his first 11 years at the company, Srinivasaraghavan spent his time building the concept of lease financing and helping expand the Chennai-focused brand to other parts of the country.

“It was around then, in 1998, that I was elevated to the board as the deputy managing director and was given responsibility beyond leasing, to look at the overall lending operations of the company, a large part of which was still commercial vehicle financing,” he says.

Along the way, came the many bumps that India’s NBFC sector has seen.

In 1996, emerged the CR Bhansali scam. CRB Capital Markets collapsed after allegation of embezzlement of nearly Rs 1,000 crore in deposits. This led to tighter regulations from the Reserve Bank of India and increased scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The crisis prompted Sundaram Finance to look for ways to diversify its operations further. “This was also a time when we realised that our customer’s needs were increasing dramatically. So, we looked at diversification,” says Srinivasaraghavan.

In 1996, the company set up its asset management company, Sundaram Newton Asset Management Company Pvt. In 1999, it entered the housing finance segment. And, in 2000, it launched India’s first private sector general insurance company in partnership with UK-based Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc.

On Aug. 11, 2003, as the company celebrated its golden jubilee, Srinivasaraghavan was elevated to the position of the managing director of Sundaram Finance. His focus was to move the company from being a pure-play commercial vehicle financing firm to a full-range vehicle financing company.

A wider product suite came alongside geographical diversification.

“Till the early 90s, we were predominantly operating only in southern India, because our roots are very much in Chennai and most of our business emanated from southern states,” says Srinivasaraghavan. But now, roughly a third of the business comes from outside the south.

“This is another major change that happened over the last 20 years, our portfolio and geographical spread diversified.”

The New Order

As Srinivasaraghavan steps down on April 1, he hands over charge to Rajiv Lochan, presently director for strategy at the company. Lochan, too, is close to being a Sundaram Finance lifer, having spent 25 years at the company.

K Ramakrishnan, senior managing director – strategic relationships at Chennai-based Spark Capital Advisors (India) Pvt., who has known Sundaram Finance for several decades, does not expect the transition to lead to any material change in the company’s direction.

. “…as a group they may be reluctant to make any drastic diversification beyond the bastion of secured asset backed lending. I believe they would accept growing at a slower pace rather than growing unprofitably,” he says.

“In the future too, I reckon, that they would continue to stick to these principles that have held it in good stead, as focus on stability, quality and stakeholder relationship is what sets Sundaram Finance apart from the other NBFCs in the country,” Ramakrishnan adds.

As he moves on to the board of the company, Srinivasaraghavan expects Sundaram Finance to continue playing to its strengths. "There are a number of things we do well, and I think we should try and get better and better at those things. Be the best we can," he says.