Ankur Bansal, managing director at BlackSoil, told Business Standard that demand for debt is growing as the initial public offering (IPO) market has started to mature in India.
“The Indian IPO market has deepened over the past 12 months. Companies that want to get ready for their IPOs or refinance their existing debt structure are turning to alternative credit as a solution provider,” he said, adding that this is a new area the firm has been focusing on, providing debt over the past year.
Not all situations can be solved by equity players, and the mid-market microfinance sector has grown, he said. Companies also need working capital for inventory and manufacturing, which typically needs to be funded by debt. “If a company is raising capital, debt also comes in at some point, as there is a proportion of debt that has come in for most companies,” Bansal said.
BlackSoil expects its deployment of funds to continue to be largely towards financial services, agribusinesses, and consumer-focused companies.
In the last few months BlackSoil has deployed funds in firms such as VLCC, MintOak, Suminter, and acquired Creditfair’s solar financing business.
“While we are sector agnostic, broadly 15-20 per cent of our deployment is towards the consumer space, and within the consumer space, we are also focusing on healthcare and health technology,” Bansal explained. He said 20-25 per cent of its exposure is towards agricultural and financial services companies, while the company also has a presence across logistics and electric vehicles.
As BlackSoil marks its 10-year milestone this month, the platform has recorded gross deployment of ₹13,000 crore over the past decade, with losses of only ₹35 crore and gross non-performing assets of ₹50 crore, spread across 10-11 companies.
Talking about where the company has lost money, Bansal said these were typically situations involving shareholder disputes.
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