Muthoot Homefin Ltd. appoints Alok Aggarwal as CEO

 Muthoot Homefin (India) Limited (MHIL), wholly owned housing finance subsidiary of Muthoot Finance, has announced the appointment of Alok Aggarwal as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). With this move, Muthoot Homefin strengthens its leadership to embark upon the company’s plans to become the most trusted institution that enriches the lives of the lower middle income (LMI) families by offering formal housing finance to them and achieving financial inclusion.

With the pandemic now being behind us, there is good buoyancy in the home finance segment. With its presence across 14 key states and 2 UTs, Muthoot Homefin is witnessing strong demand trends in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. In his new role as CEO of Muthoot Homefin Ltd, Alok will further focus on the company’s growth strategy ahead and cater to the huge unmet demand for retail housing loans. Alok will also be focused on expanding the housing finance business especially in tier 2 & 3 cities.

With 20 years of experience under his belt, Alok Aggarwal has served as the MD & CEO at National Trust Housing Finance Limited. He has delivered exceptional results and improved the performance of the companies across segments like housing finance, mortgage, auto loans, personal loans, and retail investment products. Well-versed with the regulations and policies under the NHB and RBI guidelines, he is a veteran who comes with an expertise in relationship building with all stakeholders such as regulators, commercial banks, rating agencies, members of the board, industry peers, and employees. Prior to National Trust Housing Finance, Alok has also held leadership roles in organisations like Equitas Bank, Fullerton India HFC, Magma Housing Finance, Lodha Group and Tata Capital. Alok has completed his MBA from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad and Bachelors of Commerce (Honors) from University of Delhi.

On the appointment of Alok Aggarwal as the new CEO, Mr. George Jacob Muthoot, Chairman, Muthoot Finance said, “There exists a significant gap between the housing demand and availability of housing finance to the underbanked/marginalised section. Muthoot Homefin remains focused on bridging this divide and fulfil the housing dreams of people at the bottom of the pyramid. The pandemic also further reinforced the need for housing, with real estate emerging as a resilient asset class. As a result, the demand for retail housing loans has continued to witness strong traction. With Alok joining the leadership team, we aim to capitalise on his expertise to spearhead the growth in housing finance business and also contribute significantly towards the Government’s mission of ‘Housing for All’.”

Mr. George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Finance said, “We remain committed towards growing and supporting the housing finance business of Muthoot Homefin. Although, the demand for housing loans has been steady during the pandemic, we had adopted a cautious stance towards growing the housing finance business due to the challenges customers faced on the cash flow front. Now with the pandemic behind us, we are witnessing buoyancy in the affordable housing sector across all the key states that we are present in. Given the improvement in overall operating environment, we aim to further tap the opportunity in the retail housing segment and grow the business. It is a great pleasure to onboard Alok as the CEO and I am confident that his vast experience in leading the housing finance segment in previous organisations will help us in becoming a leading player in this space. I am happy that he joins our team at a really good time as we are focused on expanding our services to new geographies and customers.”

Commenting on the new role, Mr. Alok Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Muthoot Homefin said, “I am thankful and excited to become a part of the Muthoot Group and lead Muthoot Homefin. The Muthoot Group is trusted widely and being a part of the larger Muthoot group ecosystem, Muthoot Homefin can leverage on the strong brand presence of the parent, its reach to over 4 crore customer base and also access lower cost of funds. While we are seeing increasing demand trends across many states, demand remains strong especially in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. The collection efficiency was largely stable during the pandemic, and hopefully with no fresh waves on the horizon, we expect healthy collection efficiency in the upcoming quarters. From an AUM of Rs. 1,420 crores, we aim to grow our loan book at 10-15% by the end of FY23. We further plan to improve our branch penetration across the remote locations in the country by opening 50 new branches in FY2023. Apart from a strong offline presence, we will also be actively tapping tech-savvy customers with our strong digital presence.”

Muthoot Homefin (India) Ltd (MHIL), the wholly owned subsidiary of Muthoot Finance, loan portfolio stood at Rs. 1,420 crores as of H1 FY23. Total revenue for Q2 FY23 stood at Rs. 39 crores and profit after tax at Rs. 2 crores for the same period. MHIL’s credit rating has been upgraded to AA+ / Stable by CRISIL Limited which will allow them to raise funds even more competitively and further pass on the benefits to its end customers to help them own their dream home.