R-Cap targets Rs.50,000 cr infrastructure lending

MUMBAI - Reliance Capital (R-Cap), a part of the $10-billion Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Tuesday said it will offer specialised financial services for infrastructure projects with a target of Rs.50,000 crore as asset base and 18-20 percent return.

“Over the next few years, India is projected to spend over $1 trillion or Rs.50 lakh crore in infrastructure creation. As a group, we will continue to play a special role in this huge nation-building endeavour,” Chairman Anil Ambani said.

“Reliance Capital will leverage this unmatched domain expertise of our group to offer customized financing solutions to vendors, suppliers and contractors, with targeted returns on equity of 18-20 percent,” he said.

“Our target is to create, in a phased manner, an asset base of over Rs. 50,000 crore in the next 3 to 5 years,” Ambani told the annual general meeting of the company here.

The group chairman said Reliance Capital was already India’s largest non-banking finance company in terms of net worth and assets and was looking at a number of significant value-unlocking and growth opportunities on the horizon.

Among them, there was plans to list the insurance business as a separate entity on stock markets and also enter commercial banking industry in the near term.

“Reliance Life was the first Indian insurance company to announce its plans for listing, subject to approvals, in 2009. The insurance regulator is currently at an advanced stage of finalizing the guidelines for the listing of life insurance companies,” he said.

“Once this is done, we will explore the possibility of creating value for our investors by listing our life insurance business,” he said, adding the group was also studying the revised guidelines for a banking license.

“We have always regarded banking as a high priority and a huge potential opportunity, and are evaluating the different options contained in the guidelines,” Ambani said. “We want to become a world class bank.”

The chairman said from a small asset management firm five years ago, Reliance Capital had grown into a full-spectrum financial services enterprise with nearly Rs.150,000 crore assets under management.

“We are also a leading player in each of our businesses,” he said, adding: “Remarkably, while many of the ‘giants’ of India’s financial services market have grown on the back of tie-ups with larger foreign partners, our growth is totally organic and made in India!”