‘Collections improving but a lot hinges on festival season’

Chola Investment CFO says situation only ‘stabilising’ now

Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd.’s collections against loans have begun improving from the start of this quarter but the festival season will be an important milestone to see how the company’s customers are able raise capacity utilisation, earn revenues and service debt, said CFO and executive vice-president Arulselvan D. The company had earlier said that both disbursements and collections had been impacted in the first quarter due to the second wave of COVID-19. “For us, July performance is almost at par with March 2021. Borrowers who did not pay April and May dues have begun paying across June and July.” However, he noted that the situation was only ‘stabilising’, not ‘normalising’ for the financial services firm that is into vehicle financing, loans against property and lending to small and medium enterprises. “Our borrowers need to operate at least at 60% capacity. When that goes up to 70%, they can start paying that month’s dues. When it inches towards 80%, then earlier dues on which they had defaulted would be serviced.” With the arrival of the festival season, Mr. Arulselvan reasoned, the ability to service dues for April and May would return to the company’s borrowers. The caveat, of course, was the risk to the economy from a likely third wave, he added.