Tag: Chief Financial Officer

Business

CL Educate liquidates land parcels for Rs.100 million; proceeds to be invested back in business

Oct 19, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Arjun Wadhwa, #Chief Financial Officer, #CL Educate

New Delhi: CL Educate Ltd., India’s only listed EdTech and MarTech entity, and owner of Career Launcher – the popular TestPrep brand, announced the sale of 2 land parcels in Faridabad and Amritsar. The land parcel sale is part of a larger strategic decision by the company to convert its real estate bank (valued at Rs. 65-70 crore) into cash for redeployment in its core business. This stems from a broader strategic push to egress asset heavy businesses,having already exitedits K-12 business.

Commenting on the land sale, Arjun Wadhwa, Chief Financial Officer, CL Educate, said, “We are accelerating and redoubling on our effort to maximize shareholder value. Sale of unproductive real estate and the subsequent deployment of realized cash to accelerate business growth was a key aspect of that push. As the real estate market was considerably lukewarm till recently, we were forced to wait for the right time. Now that there is some positive movement, we were able to sell the plot in Faridabad for Rs. 7.25crore and another in Amritsar for Rs. 2.3 crore, the latter held through CLIP – a 100% subsidiary.Discussions for the sale of a couple of more real estate parcels are in advanced stages with buyers, which we hope to close in the next 2 quarters.”

About Career Launcher: CL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CL Educate (NSE, BSE: CLEDUCATE), founded by Satya Narayanan R, India’s Ed-tech pioneer. It offers a variety of programs for students aged 12-30, through personalized and synchronous/ asynchronous offerings. Led by a team of highly capable leaders (including IITians and IIMians), CL aims to emerge among the top EdTech players from India who would scale globally. CL counts on two key differentiators – 1. The ability to generate results for students through a scientific data driven process and 2. Robust unit economics and an astonishingly low CAC of 15% against a massive 50-300% that exists for its competitions. With program offerings across various competitive exams including MBA, LAW, IPM, UPSC, CUCET, and International Education, CL’s result-driven approach aims to transform the career dreams of 10+ million aspirants. Over the next 3 years, it aims to engage with over ten million students from the current one million. Deployment of data science, machine learning, and recommendation algorithms (120 Edtech tools) form the business moat for CL with the ability to scale. These tools and engines help in best fit program choice, cost savings and laser-beam mentoring to deliver the best in industry results for students. Do visit www.careerlauncher.com for more information

Business

D2C Brand Plum strengthens leadership team; appoints Shivani Behl as Chief Marketing Officer and Gaurav Sarda as Chief Financial Officer

Sep 28, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Chief Financial Officer, #Chief Marketing Officer, #Founder & CEO, #Gaurav Sarda, #Plum, #Shankar Prasad, #Shivani Behl

Mumbai: Plum – a home-grown, 100% vegan, PETA certified, clean beauty brand is strengthening its leadership team as it looks to deepen its omni-channel network across geographies, expand its product offering across newer segments and drive business transformation. The company has announced the appointment of Shivani Behl as Chief Marketing Officer and Gaurav Sarda as Chief Financial Officer. The new appointees will work closely with Shankar Prasad, Founder & CEO, to further accelerate growth of brand Plum.

With over 150 SKUs, Plum has steadily built its customer base on both online and offline platforms. In addition to being among the top new-age beauty brands online, the brand also now reaches over 225 towns and cities in India, through 750+ assisted outlets, and over 10,000 unassisted outlets – growing month-on-month.

Shivani brings with her 15+ years of diverse experience across sales and marketing and has worked on building iconic brands across retail, FMCD, and beauty sectors. She has held leadership positions at Lakme Lever, Shoppers Stop and Reliance Brands. At Plum she will be responsible for scaling growth across the levers of brand and marketing, partnerships, community culture and engagement, and product innovation.

On her appointment, Shivani said, “It is an interesting juncture for D2C Beauty brands and Plum in particular. I am excited to take this opportunity to architect a brand-first approach to drive exponential growth at Plum. I believe Plum’s potential is unlimited, and look forward to working with the entire Plum team to build and accelerate the brand’s momentum in the months and years to come.”

Further, the finance division of the company gets strengthened with the joining of Gaurav Sarda as Chief Financial Officer. With rich experience of more than 14 years, he last served as Head – Manufacturing Commercial at Marico Limited. At Plum, Gaurav will work closely with the rest of the senior leadership team to drive and grow the company’s financial and development strategy.

Gaurav Sarda_Chief Financial Officer_Plum
Gaurav Sarda_Chief Financial Officer_Plum

Gaurav commented, “The path ahead is an exciting one. As the company continues to scale, I look forward to leveraging my background to implement the next phase of operational excellence and further strengthen the strong financial foundation, aligning it to the rapid growth and enabling overall business excellence.”

On the new appointments, Shankar Prasad, CEO & Founder Plum said, “We are thrilled to welcome Shivani and Gaurav to our core leadership team as we embark on our next phase of growth. Both of them bring a wealth of experience and best practices from leading companies. Their values, skills, and expertise will complement the functional strength of our current top leadership team comprising CD Prabhakar (CBO, Retail) and Girish Kulkarni (Head of SCM & Technology). Together, we look forward to shaping the company into something we all can be proud of.”

Founded in 2013, Plum is a leading, 100% vegan, cruelty-free & non-toxic beauty brand with a strong portfolio in skincare, hair care, personal care, and makeup. The brand is driven by a strong leadership & investor team focused on building value for – People, the Planet, and Profit-sharing participants. On a path of rapid, sustainable, fundamentals-driven growth with a blend of the right product and strong brand identity, Plum finds itself in a leadership position with strong financials, experiencing a 2.5X growth Y-O-Y.

Business World, News

Dvara Kgfs Receives The Long-Term Rating Of ‘Acuite A-’ By Acuité Ratings & Research Limited! ~This rating reinforces the strength of Dvara in meeting all

Jun 21, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Chief Executive Officer, #Chief Financial Officer, #DVARA KGFS, #Mr Vijayakumar G, #Mr. Joby C O

Dvara Kgfs Receives The Long-Term Rating Of ‘Acuite A-’ By Acuité Ratings & Research Limited! ~This rating reinforces the strength of Dvara in meeting allMumbai: Acuité Ratings & Research Limited, a SEBI registered and RBI accredited credit rating agency, assigns the long-term rating of ‘ACUITE A-’ (read as ACUITE A minus) on the facilities of Dvara Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services Private Limited (Dvara KGFS) with the outlook on the long-term rating set at stable.

The rating factors in all the continuous support of founder-promoter Dvara Trust (erstwhile IFMR Trust) and also takes into consideration Dvara KGFS’s established presence in its areas of operations and demonstrated growth of its AUM which stood at Rs. 1,107.79 Cr. as on March 31, 2021. The company has maintained a conservative leverage of 3 times as on March 31, 2021.

Commenting on the rating, Mr. Joby C O, Chief Executive Officer, Dvara KGFS, said “‘Acuite A-‘ rating by Acuité Ratings & Research Limited reinforces the trust reposed on Dvara KGFS by various lenders both domestic and foreign. It is truly a proud moment for Dvara KGFS to upgrade the ratings to A- and hopes it help us to broad base our fund raising to more lenders with more competitive rates.“

Highlighting the importance of the upgrade, Mr. Vijayakumar G, Chief Financial Officer, Dvara KGFS, said, “We see Liquidity flow for the NBFC’s should be continuous and this rating upgrade to A- during these difficult times would give the company more access into capital markets resulting in reduction of cost of funds during FY22.”

Business World

Aegon Life elevates Manish Falor as Chief Financial Officer

Jun 4, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Aegon Life, #Chief Financial Officer, #Manish Falor, #MD & CEO, #Satishwar Balakrishnan

Hyderabad: Aegon Life, a pioneer in digital life insurance, has announced the appointment of Manish Falor as its Chief Financial Officer. In his new role, Manish Falor will lead the company’s finance function with the aim to strengthen the business performance and growth of the company.

Manish joined Aegon Life in 2008. During his professional tenure of nearly two decades, he has led various functions of financial control, reporting, and business planning operations.

Satishwar Balakrishnan, MD & CEO, Aegon Life, commented on the appointment “We are delighted to have Manish take over the new role within the organization. His unique expertise in business planning and proficiency in accounts and financial management has helped us create value among our key stakeholders over the past 12 years. We are certain that Manish, in his new role, will help in Aegon Life’s growth in years to come. His clear vision, and leadership skills will position us for greater success.”

Speaking on his appointment, Manish added, “I am excited to take over the new role at Aegon Life. With the help of advanced technology, innovation, and a fresh approach towards insurance, Aegon Life has paved the way for digital life insurance in India. We have many firsts to our merit when we speak of innovation in the Indian life insurance industry, and we are gearing up to transform the way customers buy life insurance policies in India. It has been an amazing journey so far and I look forward to taking our business transformation to a new level.”

Prior to Aegon Life, he worked with Lovelock & Lewes and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC, London), engaging with multiple insurance and investment management clients. Manish is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and a Cost and Works Accountant (CWA) by qualification. He has also completed a management certification program on Digital Disruption in Insurance from INSEAD, France.

Business World, News

DVARA KGFS Raises 8 Million Euros As External Commercial Borrowings

Mar 23, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Agents from Impact (AFI), #CEO, #Chief Executive Officer, #Chief Financial Officer, #Dr. Andrij Fetsun, #DVARA KGFS, #Joby C O, #Mr Vijayakumar G

Hyderabad: Dvara KGFS, a NBFC operating in deep rural pockets of India, announced that they have raised 8 Million Euros from leading European social impact funds, Invest In Visions, Germany (IIV) and Darlehenskasse Muenster, Luxembourg (DKM) as External Commercial Borrowings (ECB).

The company intends to deploy the ECB proceeds for their onward lending program targeted to support their microfinance as well as small business customers in more than 9000 deep rural villages with little or no access to formal means of credit. The company has designed these micro loans to suit the dynamic requirements of their customers and potentially enhance their means of livelihood.

Commenting on the fund raiser, Joby C O, Chief Executive Officer, Dvara KGFS, said, “We are happy that through Agents for Impact (AFI), we have been able to raise 8 Million Euros as ECB from globally renowned impact funds – Invest In Visions (IIV) and their partner fund Darlehenskasse Muenster (DKM. This helps us to diversify our fund raising effort to foreign Institutional investors(FII) and DFIs. The funds will be utilised to fund our microfinance customers and Micro Enterprise customers in the rural parts of India. There are a variety of small business that we fund in rural India which includes retail shops, small dairies, agri entrepreneurs and this would help customers to restart their businesses, post covid. Our wealth management approach helps these customers to enhance their financial well-being through a variety of products.”

Mr Vijayakumar G, Chief Financial Officer, Dvara KGFS further commented saying, “Coming from pioneering social impact investors, the ECB is a testimony of the successful impact of the deep /dense business model employed by Dvara KGFS to bring about financial inclusion in the rural geographies it operates in. The ECB will also provide great fillip to our fund raise plan from overseas lenders in the coming financial year.”

On this transaction, Dr. Andrij Fetsun, CEO, Agents from Impact (AFI) commented, “AFI’s goal is to bring in new investment opportunities from India and around the globe to receive funding from Invest in Visions GmbH and this deal is an evidence to our commitment and determination to achieve such goal. I am excited to see the positive impact and effect that this loan will have on micro enterprises and entrepreneurs in deep rural and remote parts of India, which are rebuilding itself in light of the COVID pandemic.”

Business World

Impact of Budget: A Tile Manufacturer’s Perspective

Feb 10, 2021 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #Chief Financial Officer, #Himanshu Jindal, #Orientbell Tiles

New Delhi: Himanshu Jindal, Chief Financial Officer, Orientbell Tiles (https://www.orientbell.com/executive-managers) believes that the budget this time is focused more on investment led measures with higher outlays defined for infrastructure while the tax rate is largely unchanged despite the woes on the deficit front.

Speaking about the Capex proposal, the amount of Rs 5.5 lakh crores to be spent next year is much higher than the revised estimates for the current year with increased allocations for roads, ports, railways, housing, and urban development which is a good measure for overall infrastructure development.

Moreover, the creation of “bad banks” and DFI should aid liquidity, thus helping in the revival of stressed sectors post the uncertainties that clouded most of FY21. The allowance of debt financing of Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvITs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) is a much-welcomed step in the right direction as it would improve their ability to raise more money.

To add to the joy, the announcement of SOPs for affordable housing and real estate, the extension of the tax holiday by another year along with the increase of the eligibility period for claiming additional deduction of interest would help the offtake of affordable housing projects.

On the other hand, for promoting supply of affordable rental housing for the migrant workers, a new tax exemption for the notified affordable rental housing projects has been announced – again a plus for the sector.

Various relaxations have been granted in terms of the acceptable variance between sales consideration and stamp duty value for sale of residential units. All of this shows the willingness of the government to support an ailing sector which by far is one of the biggest contributors to the country – both in terms of GDP and also direct / indirect employment.

Business World, News

CRISIL Assigns BBB+ Rating To DVARA KGFS

Feb 4, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Chief Executive Officer, #Chief Financial Officer, #DVARA KGFS, #G Vijayakumar, #Joby C O

Mumbai: Credit rating agency CRISIL assigns long-term rating of BBB+/Stable to Dvara KGFS. The rating centrally factors in the highly experienced profile of the company’s board and management and continuous support of the founder-promoter, Dvara Trust (erstwhile IFMR trust); adequate capital position that has been strengthened further by recent equity infusion; and diversified resource profile.

Commenting on the rating upgrade, Joby C O, Chief Executive Officer, Dvara KGFS, said “BBB+ rating assigned by CRISIL is an endorsement of the credibility that Dvara KGFS has earned based on its consistent performance in the past many years. This is a positive reflection on our unique customer centric Wealth Management approach, Deep Rural focus & improved operational processes backed by robust and state of the art digital capabilities”

Highlighting the importance of the rating assigned by CRISIL , G Vijayakumar, Chief Financial Officer, Dvara KGFS, said “This one notch improvement in rating from BBB to BBB+ is a significant achievement considering the severe diruptions caused by covid-19 and is a testimony of the robust business platform that we have created over the years . It will reinforce the trust and confidence our investors and lenders have placed on us. We are hoping that this will boost our fund-raising efforts in the coming quarters.”