Franklin names Sundaresan as head of alternatives biz in India

Franklin Templeton Investments today said it has appointed Naganath Sundaresan as president and chief investment officer of its alternatives business in India.
Sundaresan, who will join the company tomorrow, will be responsible for introducing and growing the firm's efforts in the alternatives space in the country, Franklin Templeton said in a statement.
He will report to Mat Gulley, executive vice president and head of alternatives at Franklin Templeton.
"The AIF (Alternative Investment Funds) industry has witnessed significant growth momentum in the past two years and I am confident that the best is yet to come. Franklin Templeton Alternatives plans to provide a wide selection of AIF products over time, to domestic as well as international investors," Sundaresan said.

******* Policybazaar.com makes travel insurance process easy *
Policybazaar.com today launched a new service for its travel insurance customers, which makes the insurance buying process a matter of minutes.

To use the service, travellers can simply click a photo of their tickets, go to Policybazaar.com or use firm's app and get the travel insurance by just uploading the tickets, the insurance website and comparison portal said in a statement.
Further, the system will read the journey details from the tickets, and a customer care executive will call to suggest the best insurance price. Within minutes of the customer giving confirmation, the policy will be issued to the customer.

"In a couple of weeks, the service will be made much faster as the system itself will give you policy options, eliminating the need to go through the customer executive," the firm said.
******* Home Credit India raises Rs 153 cr for consumer durables loan *
NBFC firm Home Credit India Finance today said it has raised Rs 153 crore by concluding a securitisation deal of consumer durables loan.
According to a release by the company, it has raised Rs 153 crore "in a first-ever securitisation transaction of consumer durable asset loan receivables by the company in India".
"The issue has been subscribed by DCB Bank and IFMR Capital. As part of the transaction, the special purpose vehicle (Tarini IFMR Capital 2017) issued two tranches of pass through certificates. IFMR Capital is the arranger for the issue," the statement said.

The company, a part of Czech Republic-based Home Credit Group, claimed that it is also the first ever consumer durables loan securitisation deal rated by any credit rating agency in India.