Religare Enterprises has purchased a portion of Citigroup India’s home loan portfolio for a sum of Rs 500 crore. The portion of portfolio sold by Citi comprised of 5% of the overall home loan book of the company.
Citigroup claimed that it has exited from home loan business and has just sold a portion of its portfolio in order to lend on a fresh start. The purchase would be carried out via Religare Finvest, the non banking finance arm of Religare. The procedure is anticipated to get over by October.
Kavi Arora, Religare Finvest chief executive said, “We have entered into an agreement to acquire part assets of Citigroup India’s mortgage portfolio for Rs. 500 crore. The deal would be completed in the next three months”.
He also stated that the purchase would be a big jump for Religare Finvest which is a housing finance player for the last 3 years.
Abhijit Sen, Citi South Asia CFO said, “This sale is of a small pool of mortgages representing less than five per cent of our total mortgage portfolio. Citibank routinely sells small tranches of its portfolio to optimise returns on capital and such assets sold are substituted by fresh loan.”