Shriram Picks Up The Art Of Encashing The Opportunity

A lot is happening here and happening at a hectic pace. Well, the Chennai-born Shriram Group went through a major overall with mergers and reverse mergers resulting in a bloated Shriram Finance some time ago. It continues to hog the headlines. Last month, the South African conglomerate Sanlam upped its stake in the general and life insurance joint ventures with the Shriram group by picking up some shares from a private equity holder as well as from Shriram Ownership Trust. Significantly enough, Sanlam also divested a part of its direct holding in Shriram Finance to Shriram Value Service, a subsidiary of Shriram Capital Private Limited (SCPL) to facilitate the stake hikes. Sanlam owns 40.70% of SCPL. The balance is controlled by SOT and its affiliated entities. Now, Shriram Finance has gotten rid of its entire holding in Shriram Housing Finance for a whopping Rs 4,600 crore to Warburg Pincus. The Shriram move has put the long-time watchers of group and stock market pundits alike on an alert. Brand Shriram has always remained in the realm of mystery before the re-jig and post the reorganisation as well. The sale of the housing finance arm was on the cards always, no doubt. But the recent actions suggest a larger monetisation exercise at Shriram group.