Values and early warnings

"Growth in our business is a by-product,” said Khushru Jijina, managing director of Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited (PCHFL). "I only talk to my team of quality… if one focuses on quality in this business, growth is sure to follow,” explained the senior finance professional, who in April this year was recognized as "Entrepreneur of the year 2018 in the financial services industry” at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards organized by Enterprise Asia.

Khushru Jijina

The company provides wholesale and retail financing across sectors, with a special focus on real estate. Its Mumbai Redevelopment Fund focuses on slum rehabilitation. PCHFL serves over 140 real estate developers, over 2,000 retail home buyers and has a book size (financing provided) of Rs 75,000 crores, according to information provided by them. A wholly owned, non listed subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited, the company is registered as a housing finance (HF) company with the National Housing Bank, the country’s apex institution that regulates HF companies. "There are over 90 Indian companies providing housing finance… There would be only six or seven that have book sizes of over Rs 10,000 crores,” the company executive told Parsiana in an interview in his mid town Bombay office in April.
"‘Aim for the World Cup, not the Ranji Trophy,’ I tell my team members,” said Jijina who leads 750 people company-wide. New products and innovation is another key for growth. Their Apartment Fund is one such example. Under this scheme, the company pitches bulk sales to groups of individual buyers like company executives and club members "who would be concerned who their neighbors are… shall we call them the gentry?” he smiled. The company earlier focused only on financing corporate deals worth Rs 100 crores and above. "We realized we were missing out on servicing a large number of smaller customers, so we changed that,” said Jijina. The foray to provide financing to auto ancillaries, cement companies and logistic companies was also the result of a drive to tap into underserviced sectors of the economy. "Our emerging corporate lending group (that serves small companies) in its first year alone did business of Rs 1,000 crores,” he stated.
"Loans sé péhlé log (people before loans),” states a company brochure. "We are in the business of putting people first,” says another. According to Jijina, "Value systems create value.” He quoted the example of a Madras-based construction company whose business was at a standstill on account of torrential rains there in 2016. "‘Do not worry, pay us (your installments) when you are back on your feet,’ we told them.” Proud of the Group philosophy that treats customers as partners, the chartered accountant stated that "when you get people aligned, the cake (rewards) becomes bigger.” The company works with large clients to help them match their installment repayments with their cash flow schedule. "Many know that in the construction business, there are swings in cash receipts quarter on quarter, but not many large housing finance companies give their customers this flexibility in repayments,” Jijina said.

Khushru Jijina with Piramal Group chairman Ajay Piramal

The finance man attributes all awards and industry recognition received by him to "our building blocks that we call Piramal Success Factors… These have been derived from our company values.” According to the Group website, the factors are, among others, think big, collaborate, empower and develop.
The company does not have a high default rate from its borrowers, Jijina noted. "If you do your due diligence right on your business partners, risk automatically goes down.” An advocate of early warning systems that foretell defaults from their customers, he informed us of an in-house developed software, EWSignals, that allows the company to take proactive steps like temporary restructuring.
Jijina joined the Piramal Group in January 2001 as a Group treasurer, where according to the Group website, he "was instrumental in securing debt at the lowest cost for the Group, setting new benchmarks in the debt market.” He tells us how within a short period of his joining the Piramal Group, he and his team were able to pay off unpaid workers, creditors and bankers in the Group’s erstwhile textile business (Morarjee Mills). He states he was "lucky to be recognized for my work by Group chairman Ajay Piramal.” The senior executive now also leads the financial services arm of Piramal Enterprises, the flagship company of the Group, in addition to looking after the personal finances of the Group founders.
"What we have done is that whether the developer requires equity or construction finance or debt, we have got one person serving him. The (same) logic applies to…housing finance,” Jijina had told The Hindu on March 21 this year, while commenting on the merger of Piramal Finance Limited and Piramal Housing Finance Limited that resulted in the formation of PCHFL. He had headed both entities as managing director. "We had to tap on the synergies of both the segments — wholesale and retail,” he told Parsiana. Looking ahead, Jijina says, "With our value systems and guiding stars” PCHFL "not only hopes to, but has plans in place to serve 15% of the housing finance market by 2020...
"Partnerships among housing finance lenders are vital to the business… If lenders join hands, it is good for all concerned,” says Jijina. Piramal has collaborated on a few large deals with Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), whose vice chairman and chief executive officer Keki Mistry (see "The ‘largest investment,’” Parsiana, July 21, 2017) he considers "a very dear friend.” Jijina also lauds Pirojsha Godrej who is steering the Godrej Group’s real estate venture for "the way he is growing their business.”
Previous positions held by Jijina in the Group include managing director of Piramal Realty Private Limited since 2010. He has been the managing partner at Piramal Fund Management. Prior to joining the Group, he handled various assignments in Rallis India, a Tata Group company.
The US $10 Bn Piramal Group has interests in pharma, information management and glass packaging in addition to financial services and real estate, with offices in 30 countries, employing over 10,000 people, as per their website.
"I am not too clued in on the housing needs of the community,” Jijina said, when asked to comment on the apparent shortage of community housing on one hand, and flats lying vacant in housing colonies. "My gut feel says we do not need to build more houses,” he let on. The 53-year-old, whose Poona-based family was in the film exhibition business, schooled in Bombay’s Don Bosco School and completed his graduation from H. R. College of Commerce and Economics before interning with chartered accountancy firm S. B. Billimoria and Company. Wife Binaifer is an ex investment banker and currently a consultant on industrial finance. Daughter Roxanne (23) works for Apple Inc in the USA while 20-year-old son Sam studies at Georgia Institute of Technology in that country.
"I perform all the rituals and traditions associated with our religion, but I would not condemn others, who would, say, opt for interfaith marriages or alternative methods of disposal,” he noted. Optimistic about the future of the community, Jijina who visits Bombay’s Aslaji Bhikhaji Agiary on important rozs says "there was a period, a couple of decades ago when Parsis wanted a cushy lifestyle (without putting in efforts)… There are many Parsis in good positions in industry lately, specially in new age businesses… I see an upward trend.”