Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, prudent banker, steps out of his comfort zone

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has been a cautious businessman all through his career, but the acquisition of Gruh Finance appears out of character.

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh is known to be a prudent businessman when it comes to allocating his group’s resources. He transformed Bandhan from being the largest Microfinance Institution (MFI) to a full-fledged bank and successfully led it to an IPO in March last year without going on a spending spree. 

His achievements so far have been riding on a high-margin business model. In that backdrop, the Gruh Finance deal stitched this week, labelled by the market as largely expensive, is seemingly out of sync with Ghosh’s character.

Microfinance is the most profitable lending proposition after informal money lending. The margins, although