After the success of Pune-based Serum Institute of India in making one of the two vaccines in India’s inoculation programme against Covid-19, Adar Poonawalla is venturing into finance. The SII CEO is buying a 60 per cent stake in Magma Fincorp, to exploit India’s potential in the sector.
In an interview with The Economic Times, Poonawalla said, “I have always felt that the potential in India for the finance sector and the unmet needs of our people is so big that we definitely should be getting into this business. We started Poonawalla Finance two years ago and we want to scale up and have everything that Magma has — the general insurance, the housing finance business and of course, other sectors it has built over many years.”
Poonawalla will be the Chairman in Magma and Managing Director Sanjay Chamaria will be the Vice-Chairman. The company will be getting a professional CEO. “It is a space where I do not have 100 per cent experience, so I am going to let the professionals do their job,” he said.
Poonawalla also said that India’s finance sector has unlimited opportunities as the economy is “going to grow in double digits”.
He also said that finance will become a critical arm of his company in the upcoming years. “Magma Fincorp already has more than 290 branches and we want to build on that geographically and also to take care of the risk,” he is quoted as saying by the publication.
Published 12 February 2021, 05:14 IST