Motilal Oswal group evaluates sale of home finance arm

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: Mumbai-based financial services group Motilal Oswal wants to exit the home finance business and has put its housing finance company on the block, three people aware of the matter said. The development comes in the backdrop of increased deal activity in the affordable housing space in the past few months, both from private equity investors and in the primary markets.

Motilal Oswal has appointed investment bank Avendus Capital to look for potential buyers, the people cited above added on condition of anonymity. The group’s holding company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, along with other wholly owned subsidiaries, currently holds 97.49% stake in the housing finance subsidiary, Motilal Oswal Home Finance. While it was not immediately known how much the stake might fetch, some of its listed peers in the affordable housing space—such as Aadhar Housing Finance, Aavas Financiers, Aptus Value Housing Finance India, and Home First Finance Company—are trading at 2.8-3.9 times their book value or net worth.

As per data from Crisil, Motilal Oswal’s housing finance business had a standalone net worth of ₹1,290 crore as on 31 March 2024. Going by peer valuation, back-of-the-envelope calculations show the company could be valued between ₹3,612 crore and ₹5,031 crore. A spokesperson for Motilal Oswal Home Finance denied the move: “There is no such development of sale of business of Motilal Oswal Home Finance Ltd (MOHFL)".