Indel Money – the flagship financial institution of Indel Corporation is a business enterprise with a total paid-up capital of Rs 200+ Cr and a total turnover crossing Rs 1,000 Cr. The company has a diversified investment portfolio which includes, Financial Services, Automobile, Hospitality, Infrastructure Development, Media, Communication, and Entertainment.
Umesh Mohanan, Executive Director and CEO, Indel Money has played a major role in transforming the customer-focussed face of the gold loan sector. Indel Money under Umesh’s leadership has launched a first-of-its-kind conventional gold loan co-lending partnership with IndusInd Bank. The co-lending partnership is helping Indel Money to enhance its gold loan portfolio across the country by penetrating various market segments. He has pioneered the concept of gold loans at the doorstep by launching a unique digital gold loan platform- Indel Digital Gold.
In conversation with Medianews4u, Umesh Mohanan spoke about the gold loan demand growth, marketing initiatives of Indel Money, and more.
How do you assess the gold loan demand to grow in the current fiscal? What will be the factors which will contribute to the growth?
On the back of the revival of the economy, the gold demand outlook is positive. The positive consumer sentiment, no imminent infection threat from any new Covid variant and the small and medium-level companies that are on the revival mode will mainly drive gold loan demand, going forward.
Talk to us about the communication and marketing initiatives undertaken by Indel Money to educate and influence Indians on financial decisions?
We adopt both traditional and digital marketing routes to reach out to our target audience. However, the type of gold loan service itself selects its media vehicle. For instance, we are more aggressive in promoting our DGL – Indel Digital Gold Loan service on social media as it majorly targets digital-savvy customers. In addition, we regularly run various customer awareness campaigns like ‘gold loan is always a better alternative’ on a range of media platforms.
Gold auction by non-banking gold loan companies has increased multiple times in Q3 due to defaults by customers. Does it imply growing credit risk for financial institutions?
The higher delinquencies is a short-term phenomenon due to gold price volatility and cash-flow uncertainties. The long-term gold loan credit growth outlook remains robust. Our two-year long-term gold loan eliminates the need to go for auction and ensures ownership of the customers on the pledged gold. Auctioning of pawned gold signals the end of the journey with the customers which doesn’t augur well for the gold loan market growth.
Can you throw some light on media vehicles for Indel Money? Are you a digital-first company?
Being a digital-focused gold loan NBFC, we always aim to leverage the growing reach, popularity and penetration of digital media to develop strong consumer traction for our services. As we are expanding into various semi-urban and rural areas, we assign adequate importance to traditional media vehicles like print media, out-of-home advertising as well to drive visibility and influence customer choice.
What are your expansion plans for the company?
We are currently pursuing our pan-India expansion plan. As a part of that plan, we’ll venture into Goa, Maharashtra and West Bengal in Q4FY22 and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in FY23. We have more than 225 branches across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the union territory of Puducherry in the South and Odisha in the East. We aim to grow our presence to more than 500 across 11 states by 2023.
