India`s Piramal to provision for AIF exposure as cenbank tightens rules
India's Piramal Enterprises said on Thursday that it will set aside provisions for certain exposures to investments in alternate investment fund (AIF) units, two days after the country's central bank tightened rules governing such holdings.
The Reserve Bank on India (RBI) on Tuesday barred all entities under its regulation, including banks and non-banking finance companies, from investing in alternate investment funds that have investments in borrowers in the past 12 months.
As per the RBI's direction, regulated entities must liquidate their investments in AIFs within 30 days should the fund invest in an existing borrower. Failure to comply mandates the entity to make full provisions on these investments.
As of Nov. 30, the value of investments made by the company and Piramal Capital and Housing Finance in AIF units was 38.17 billion rupees ($458.78 million), it said in a filing.
Within the AIF investments, 6.53 billion rupees is attributed to funds with no exposure to debtor companies of Piramal Enterprises, the firm said.
Of the remaining 31.64 billion rupees, 17.37 billion rupees are invested in three entities that served as debtor companies of Piramal Enterprises in the last 12 months.
The company intends to adjust the remaining 31.64 billion rupees through capital funds or provisions and is engaging with relevant stakeholders to finalise the details, it said.
Jefferies estimates Piramal's AIF exposure to be 7% of its assets under management and said provisioning for it could lead to a 10% hit to its net worth.
Piramal is confident of a full recovery of its investments, it said.
Shares of Piramal Enterprises fell 2.33% on Thursday.
($1 = 83.1990 Indian rupees)