Flexibility emanates from the regulated players which have been dominating the market for a long time - Shyam Maheshwari SSG

Shyam Maheshwari SSG is a founder and partner at ARES SSG. Maheshwari is also an Associate Member at the institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Shyam Maheshwari begins his career in 1999 at Lehman Brothers. He has 17 years of experience in deal sourcing, analysing and investing industry. Previously, Mr. Maheshwari served as a Senior Member of the Lehman Brothers Asia Special Situations Group primarily responsible for making principal investments in India. After an exceptional career in Ares SSG, Maheshwari stepped down from the firm in July 2021 to spend more time with his family.

Shyam Maheshwari thinks that taking what he said on the flexibility, also emanates from the regulated players which have been dominating the market for a long time whether it is a bank or a non-bank. He considers the first one as regulated and the second one as leveraged. According to him, the leverage platforms have certain constraints which were shown when IFS has happened in terms of whether it is LLM or it is provisioning norms.

On speaking about flexibility, Shyam Maheshwari identifies that it is available in two ways. “Flexibility is available in terms of speed. Flexibility is also available in terms of crafting a solution which is meeting the need of the borrower then. It could be for capital formation, which is quite a constraint in terms of financing from the traditional sector in India”, Shyam says. According to him, the third is real estate and the fourth is intangibles. Shyam Maheshwari considers a lot of these sectors as the building blocks of the country especially of the real estate which does not get adequate attention from the banking sector.

Shyam Maheshwari explains that, coming to the ground, people expect certain sectors have more need. But it seems like the need has grown rapidly at least in terms of number enquiries. The need required in certain sectors exceeds the need that the sector expects. He says that in reality, this is primarily because of constraints especially at this point where the banking sector is running double-digit MPL ratios.

Shyam Maheshwari is a founder and partner at ARES SSG. 

Shyam Maheshwari recognizes that there had been certain comfort for the investors from the global perspective because there is an IBC process in place. There is creditor protection which is increasing and improving over time. The access to the market remains open and improving, he says. But still Shyam Maheshwari considers that there is a lot that could be done to advance the market conditions. One way to make this possible is in the form of access, which is currently only available to the foreign participant in the form of either ECB in dollar terms or in rupee. Bond market has certain nuances and constraints at this point.  But Shyam Maheshwari is ecstatic to see the signs that it has been opening up in the last decade or so.