Thank you for your interest in our company. As you browse through this website you will discover why Manappuram has today emerged as the most influential name in the gold loan business in India.
It’s undeniable that gold loans have a distinctive place in the Indian financial sector with potential and possibilities unlike any other. It begins with the well known fact that India has the world’s largest stock of privately held gold. Estimated at 18,000 tonnes and amounting to about 10% of the world stock, this gold is worth about $800 billion.
The gold loan business is about unleashing the hidden power of this gold, bringing to life what is otherwise a dead investment. The market potential for gold loans in India is vast. Less than 10% of our private gold has been monetised. The rest lies idle in safes and vaults in millions of homes across India. And remarkably, 65% of the gold in India is held by rural households. That is why, in a country keen to promote financial inclusion for the rural population, gold loans are now recognised as a powerful tool to achieve this objective.
And Manappuram Finance stands at the forefront of India’s quest to convert its gold into a socially relevant business opportunity. We are proud to have transformed this age-old activity by introducing scale, transparency and professionalism to this business. A gold loan is among the safest loans products with the lowest delinquencies. At Manappuram, we lend mostly against household used jewellery and our default rates are below one percent.
And so, it comes as no surprise that today, we are one of the fastest growing companies in India with Assets under Management (AUM) of Rs. 90,296 Million, a 2,280 strong branch network covering 22 states, and a live customer base of 1.36 Million as on 30th June 2011. In fact, for the last four years, we have grown at a CAGR in excess of 70 percent. We are now one of India’s top 500 companies, and our market capitalisation exceeds one billion dollars.
As for the future, I believe Gold loans are best seen as an idea whose time has come. From the days when gold loans carried a stigma because it suggested desperation, we have now come to a stage where more and more people in India are waking up to the power of the gold they own. And yes, this is worth mentioning; Manappuram’s celebrity Brand Ambassadors have played a major part in countering prejudice, shaping attitudes and in garnering wider acceptance for gold loans.
That is why India’s gold loan sector is expected to grow at 35-40% over the next five years. And that is why Manappuram Finance stands poised to outdo its peers, yet again.
V.P. Nandakumar
Executive Chairman
