'Nearly two-thirds of auto sector loan needs met by private, foreign lenders'

Nearly two-thirds of the auto industry's loan requirements are taken care of by the private and foreign lenders in the country, a report said on Tuesday.

Referring to data dating back to June 2020, Crif High Mark, a credit information company, said state-owned lenders lead by loan volumes, accounting for nearly 35 per cent of the loans.

In terms of value of the loans extended, private sector lenders have the largest share at 41.4 per cent, foreign banks accounted for 24.4 per cent and state-owned lenders came third with 19.6 per cent share, the report prepared by the company in association with Sidbi said.

The auto industry had been facing problems because of the fall in economic growth and regulatory changes before the pandemic itself.

From an asset quality perspective, the non-performing assets (NPA) ratio on the loans taken by auto and auto components industry declined to 9.59 per cent as of June 2020, the report said.

It can be noted that starting March 2020, the RBI had given a six-month moratorium on loan repayments and allowed lenders not to recognize non-payments as NPAs. After the end of the relief period, the Supreme Court had ordered a standstill on loan recognition.

Out of the total credit availed by the auto and auto components sector, term loans constitute 48 per cent, followed by working capital loans at 33 per cent and other funded credit facilities at 18 per cent, it said.

As of June 2020, NPAs of term loans stand at 14.7 per cent while the same for working capital loans were at 5.2 per cent, the report said.

There were total 1.29 lakh borrowers in the sector as of June, it said, adding that in terms of number of loans availed, 91 per cent was by micro, small and medium enterprises.

The overall credit outstanding to the industry went up by 1 per cent in the June quarter to ₹1.13 lakh crore, which is 12 per cent of the sectoral turnover of ₹9.4 lakh crore.

The top 8 automobile clusters together constitute 80 per cent of the credit portfolio as of June 2020, it said.