Rating Rationale
August 31, 2019 | Mumbai
AAVAS Financiers Limited
Rating Reaffirmed
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.60.54 Crore (Reduced from Rs.557 Crore)
Long Term Rating CRISIL A+/Stable (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has reaffirmed its 'CRISIL A+/Stable' rating on the Rs 60.54 crore long-term bank facilities of Aavas Financiers Ltd (Aavas). CRISIL has withdrawn its rating on the Rs 496.46 crore bank facilities of the company, on account of original loan repayment and as requested by the client. The withdrawal is in line with CRISIL's policy of withdrawal of ratings.

The reaffirmation reflects Aavas's comfortable capital position and better-than-industry-average earnings profile. These strengths are partially offset by limited track record of operations coupled with moderate seasoning of the loan book. 

Analytical Approach

For arriving at the ratings, CRISIL has assessed the standalone credit risk profile of Aavas.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths:
* Comfortable capital position: Networth was comfortable at Rs 1883.2 crore as of June 2019, supported by regular capital raised in recent years and healthy internal accrual. The company raised Rs 360 crore through initial public offering in October 2018 and Rs 471 Crs equity raised during fiscal 2019; in fiscals 2018 and 2017, the shareholders had infused Rs 441 and Rs 314 crore, respectively. The Tier-I and overall capital adequacy ratios remained healthy at 61.0% and 64.3%, respectively, as on June 30, 2019 (64.3% and 67.8%, respectively, as on March 31, 2019). The regulatory capital adequacy for the company is also supported by the relatively lower risk weight on small ticket housing loans which form a majority proportion of the company's portfolio. Gearing (adjusted for securitisation) stood comfortable at 2.7 times as on June 30, 2019 (2.7 times as on March 31, 2019).
 
* Better-than-industry earnings profile: In fiscal 2019, the return on managed assets ratio (RoMA) increased to 3.0% from 2.4% in fiscal 2018, led by higher securitisation income and lower operating expenditure. Net Interest Margin is likely to gradually reduce because of increasing competition, which should be partially offset by improvement in operating efficiency, with increase in scale of operations. Operating expense (as a percentage of managed assets) stood at 3.5% in fiscal 2019, decreasing from 4.3% in fiscal 2018 primarily on account of improving operational efficiency. The earnings profile, however, remains susceptible to any increase in credit costs given the high growth in the loan book and the inherently modest credit risk profile of the borrowers. Nevertheless, the earnings profile should sustain over the medium term.
  
Weakness
* Limited track record of operations coupled with relatively low seasoning of loan book: The company started operations in March 2012. The overall assets under management (AUM) of Rs. 6362.3 Crore as on 30th June, 2019. The seasoning of the loan portfolio is improving; company's loan book grew at more than 50% CAGR over past three years. Company has also been able to maintain its asset quality during the challenging times like demonetization, RERA and GST implementation, however, ability to maintain asset quality performance through different economic cycles and geographies is yet to be established. Company is among the key players in the affordable segment in the tier-2 -tier-4 market. Although operations have expanded across the country, Rajasthan and Maharashtra continue to account for a sizeable portion (62%).
 
Given that the loan book has grown at a strong pace in recent years (compound annual growth rate of 52.3% over the three years through March 31, 2019), seasoning remains moderate. Nevertheless, Aavas has strong credit underwriting and risk systems, a conservative loan-to-value ratio of 50% on total portfolio, and  most of the properties are singly unit self occupied properties, adequate processes and collection mechanism, as reflected in gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio of 0.58% as on June 30, 2019 (0.47% as on March 31, 2019). However, the company's ability to manage asset quality as the book scales up will remain a monitorable.

Liquidity:
Liquidity is comfortable. As on June 30, 2019, the company had positive cumulative gaps across all maturity buckets up to 10 years, indicating that business inflows support repayments. As on July 2019, upcoming borrowings stood at Rs 234.5 crore (of which Rs 188.9 crore were bank repayments) until January 31, 2020. Liquidity is further supported by unutilised bank lines of Rs 1194 crore and other liquid investments of around Rs 646 crore (in the form of fixed deposits and mutual funds) as of July 2019. The company has been able to raise incremental fund of Rs 2,009 crore at a competitive rate of 8.68% from Oct 18 to July 19.
Outlook: Stable

The outlook may be revised to 'Positive' if the company continues to scale up while maintaining healthy asset quality and earnings. The outlook may be revised to 'Negative' in case of a significant deterioration in asset quality or profitability.
 
Rating sensitivity factors
Upward scenario
* The company maintains healthy asset quality (with GNPA of <1%) for an extended period of time while scaling up its loan book; and/or
* The company maintains strong profitability on a steady-state basis
 
Downward scenario
* Deterioration in asset quality (with GNPA increasing above 2.5-3%) leading to significant increase in provisioning cost; and/or
* Profitability being impacted due to increasing competition in the affordable housing space.

About the Company

Aavas commenced operations in March 2012; the company obtained a license for its housing finance business from National Housing Bank in August 2011. It caters to the housing finance needs of small families in rural and semi-urban areas. It had AUM of Rs 6,362 crore as on June 30, 2019. While Rajasthan remained the largest contributor (44% of the AUM), operations have gradually expanded and now cover ten states. The company had 211 branches as on June 30, 2019.
 
Aavas was incorporated as AU Housing Finance Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Au Financier. In April 2016, Au Financier divested a majority stake in favour of Kedaara Capital and Partner Group to fulfil the requirement for converting itself to a small finance bank. As on June 30, 2019, key shareholders were Kedaara Capital (34.31%), Partners Group (23.98%), Au Small Finance Bank (6.42%), and the management team (7.4%) on a fully diluted basis.
 
In fiscal 2019, Aavas reported profit after tax of Rs 176 crore (RoMA of 3.0%) on a total income of Rs 711 crore against Rs 93 crore (RoMA of 2.4%) and Rs 494 crore the previous fiscal. For the quarter through June 2019, profit after tax was Rs 45.3 crore on a total income of Rs 197.4 crore against Rs 30.1 crore and Rs 147.1 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Key Financial Indicators
As on / for the period ended March 31 Unit 2019 2018
Total assets Rs Crore 5626 4040
Total income (net of interest expense) Rs Crore 456 301
Profit after tax Rs Crore 176 93.0
Gross NPA % 0.47 0.46
Gearing (including securitisation) Times 2.7 2.9
Return on managed assets % 3.0 2.4

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments. The CRISIL complexity levels are available on www.crisil.com/complexity-levels. Users are advised to refer to the CRISIL complexity levels for instruments that they consider for investment. Users may also call the Customer Service Helpdesk with queries on specific instruments.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of instrument Date of allotment Coupon rate (%) Maturity date Issue size
(Rs crore)
Rating assigned  with outlook
NA Term Loan 1 NA NA 21-Jan-21 5.77 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 2 NA NA 31-Aug-20 4.17 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 3 NA NA 16-Jun-20 3.27 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 4 NA NA 28-Mar-21 7.3 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 5 NA NA 31-Jan-20 1.67 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 6 NA NA 30-Sep-23 5.31 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 7 NA NA 30-Dec-20 2.14 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 8 NA NA 30-Dec-20 5.45 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 9 NA NA 28-Mar-22 6.86 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 10 NA NA 22-Mar-20 4.88 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 11 NA NA 28-Feb-22 9.96 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Term Loan 12 NA NA 31-Jan-21 3.76 CRISIL A+/Stable
NA Cash Credit and Working Capital Demand Loan NA NA NA 40.0 Withdrawn
NA Term Loan NA NA NA 454.84 Withdrawn
NA Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility NA NA NA 1.62 Withdrawn
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2019 (History) 2018  2017  2016  Start of 2016
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Commercial Paper  ST    --    --    --  18-01-17  Withdrawal  15-04-16  CRISIL A1+/Watch Developing  CRISIL A1+ 
Non Convertible Debentures  LT    --    --    --  18-01-17  Withdrawal  15-04-16  CRISIL A/Watch Developing  CRISIL A/Positive 
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  60.54  CRISIL A+/Stable      28-05-18  CRISIL A+/Stable  18-01-17  CRISIL A/Stable  15-04-16  CRISIL A/Watch Developing  CRISIL A/Positive 
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Annexure - Details of various bank facilities
Current facilities Previous facilities
Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating
Cash Credit & Working Capital demand loan 40 Withdrawn Cash Credit & Working Capital demand loan 40 CRISIL A+/Stable
Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 1.62 Withdrawn Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 1.62 CRISIL A+/Stable
Term Loan 60.54 CRISIL A+/Stable Term Loan^ 515.38 CRISIL A+/Stable
Term Loan 454.84 Withdrawn -- 0 --
Total 557 -- Total 557 --
^Includes Rs.30 crore of subordinated term loan
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings - process, scale and default recognition
Rating Criteria for Finance Companies
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt

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