Home First Finance Company India Limited is an Indian housing finance company in the

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

segment based in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and founded in 2010. It provides

home loan A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...

s, loan against property and home construction loans. Its equity shares are listed on

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange in ...

and National Stock Exchange.

History

Home First Finance was founded in 2010 by former chairman and co-founder of Mphasis, Jerry Rao; former CEO and MD of

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, a ...

, PS Jayakumar; and Manoj Viswanathan, who previously worked with

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

India. It commenced operations in August 2010 after registering with the

National Housing Bank National Housing Bank (NHB), is the apex regulatory body for overall regulation and licensing of housing finance companies in India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance , Government of India. It was set up on 9 July 1988 under t ...

, the regulatory and licensing body for housing finance companies in India. In 2011,

Bessemer Venture Partners Bessemer Venture Partners (Bessemer) is an American venture capital firm. The firm has over $19 billion under management and invests globally, with offices in San Francisco, Redwood City, New York City, Boston, Israel, India, and London. Bessemer ...

bought a minority stake in the company for an undisclosed sum. In 2013, Tata Capital Growth Fund picked up a minority stake in the company. Home First Finance turned profitable in 2014. In February 2017,

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm True North acquired a

majority stake A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the major ...

in Home First Finance for over 600 crore. A co-investor in this round, Aether (Mauritius) Limited, an affiliate of the Singaporean

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such ...

GIC, also became part of the company's promoter group with True North. In October 2020,

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

acquired a 25% stake in Home First Finance for 700 crore. In January 2021, Warburg Pincus increased its stake to 30.62% ahead of Home First Finance's initial public offering. In January 2021, Home First Finance launched its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) of 1,154 crore; the IPO was subscribed over 26 times. Equity shares of the company began trading on

and National Stock Exchange on 3 February 2021. In December 2021,

Union Bank of India Union Bank of India, commonly referred to as Union Bank or UBI, is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Mumbai. It has 120+ million customers and a total business of US$106 billion. After the amalgamation with Corporation Bank and An ...

(UBI) and Home First Finance Company India Ltd (HomeFirst) entered into a strategic co-lending partnership. In December 2022, Home First Finance raised 280 crore from

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of t ...

to provide financing for

green affordable housing Green affordable housing is reasonably priced housing that incorporates sustainable features. The phenomenon has become increasingly common in the United States with the adoption of state and local policies that favor or require green building pr ...

customers.

Operations

Home First Finance primarily functions in the

segment, providing home loans to low and

middle-income The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...

individuals. As of March 2023, 88% of its gross loan assets are from home loans, and 11% from the loan against property vertical. The company operates in 13 states and 1 union territory through 111 branches. As of March 2023, 60.7% of its loan assets are from the states of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. During fiscal year 2022–23, the company crossed the milestone of 100,000 customers served till date. About 70% of its customers are from the salaried class in both formal and

informal sectors An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countrie ...

, while self-employed individuals make up the remainder 30% customer base. The company's assets under management stood at 7,198 crore.

Finances

ESG

Home First Finance has been rated in the category of "low risk" by Morningstar's

Sustainalytics Sustainalytics, a Morningstar Company, is a company that rates the sustainability of listed companies based on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance. The company was born of a merger between Toronto-based Jantzi ...

with a score of 16.2.

References

External links

* {{Financial services in India Housing finance companies of India Financial services companies based in Mumbai Financial services companies established in 2010 Indian companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in Maharashtra Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange 2021 initial public offerings Warburg Pincus companies