‘The company last year took a conscious call not to grow the corporate side of the book.’<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Housing finance company (HFC) PNB Housing is planning to focus on reducing delinquencies in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

Its managing director & chief executive officer Girish Kousgi<\/strong> tells Nikesh Singh<\/strong> in a conversation in New Delhi that he sees a huge opportunity for the company in the prime housing segment in coming years.<\/p>\n

PNB Housing recently raised Rs 2,494 crore from its rights issue. Will the company raise more capital?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the recent raising of capital, the company is well capitalised to support its loan growth in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

There is no challenge of that aspect affecting our growth.<\/p>\n

The raised capital will be used for growth as the company sees a huge opportunity in the prime housing segment in years to come.<\/p>\n

PNB Housing’s gross NPA (non-performing assets) stood at 3.83 per cent at the end of 2022-23. What is your GNPA and loan growth targets for this financial year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We want to bring down delinquencies in 2023-24 to level with industry standards in the next four-six quarters.<\/p>\n

We expect disbursement and loan growth of around 22 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, on the retail side this financial year.<\/p>\n

The retail loan book was muted in the first and second quarters.<\/p>\n

With growth returning in the last two quarters, it stood at 10 per cent year on year in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

How do you see the company’s growth in the affordable housing sector in this financial year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The HFC recently entered the affordable segment, and disbursed around Rs 137 crore till the end of Q4 of 2022-23.<\/p>\n

This year, the segment will contribute 10-11 per cent to the incremental business, with good growth opportunities.<\/p>\n

It will help us grow on the retail side; we are not looking at growing the corporate book.<\/p>\n

The corporate side of the book shrank nearly halved in 2022-23. What is your take on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company last year took a conscious call not to grow the corporate side of the book.<\/p>\n

This was done in view of the very high GNPA of around 8.35 per cent.<\/p>\n

The company was working aggressively on resolution and settlements to bring it down to a standard level.<\/p>\n

We will restart on that aspect by the end of 2023-24.<\/p>\n

The size of the corporate book is around Rs 3,800 crore at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

Today, we have only two NPA accounts on the corporate side, amounting to Rs 846 crore.<\/p>\n

The National Housing Bank recently notified early warning signals (EWS) for HFCs to prevent accounts from turning NPA. How do you intend to implement that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The EWS framework is a formal structure put in place by the regulator to track those defaults.<\/p>\n

The company will upgrade its technology to meet the same.<\/p>\n

The mechanisms are already in place for years.<\/p>\n

The company has a team for fraud detection and prevention, and a unit for risk containment before sanction of loans.<\/p>\n

The company also has a concept of pre-delinquency management to detect such defaults.<\/p>\n

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