Real Touch Finance is a Kolkata-based lender that puts money into the hands of self-employed individuals, small business owners, and real estate developers - people the big banks often overlook. It started life in 1984 as a cereals company called Associated Cereals Limited before pivoting entirely into finance, securing its RBI licence in 2017 and building a loan book that was entirely unsecured as recently as March 2024. The recurring approach is simple: borrow from institutions and bodies corporate, lend at higher rates to credit-hungry but underserved borrowers, and manage the risk with provisioning rules that are stricter than the regulator's own. # Business segments A single lending engine serving three borrower types - self-employed individuals, micro and small enterprises, and real estate - through secured and unsecured loans, funded by institutional borrowings and managed with conservative risk buffers. ## 1. Secured and unsecured lending: credit for those the banks miss **The company lends against property, against a promise, and against a small business's future cash flows - every rupee lent is a rupee borrowed from an institution, and the spread between the two is how it earns.** - **Loan against property is the anchor** - borrowers pledge residential or commercial real estate as collateral, which gives the company a claim on a hard asset if things go wrong; this is the secured backbone of a book that was historically 100% unsecured. - **Personal loans for the self-employed** - these are unsecured advances repayable on demand, aimed at shopkeepers, traders and sole proprietors who need working capital but lack the salary slips a bank would ask for. - **Structured MSE loans fill a gap** - micro and small enterprises get customised credit that banks find too small or too messy to underwrite, with the company also lending onward to other NBFCs working in impact lending (lending aimed at social outcomes). - **Interest income plus penalty fees** - revenue comes from interest calculated using the Effective Interest Rate method, plus bounce charges when cheques fail, penal charges for late payment, and foreclosure charges when a borrower repays early. - **Credit risk is provisioned conservatively** - every loan is sorted into one of three buckets under the Expected Credit Loss model: Stage 1 for healthy loans, Stage 2 where risk has jumped, and Stage 3 for loans more than 90 days past due; with respect to provisioning of NPAs, the company follows stricter norms than those prescribed by RBI. ## 2. Branch-originated distribution: feet on the street in two states **Loans are sourced through a physical branch network in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, though the company has recently pulled back to a single hub in Chennai to cut costs.** - **Built branch by branch from 2021** - the Tamil Nadu expansion began with Chennai in September 2021, then added Kancheepuram and Vandavasi in May 2022, followed by Tindivanam, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur in December 2022, and Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai in February 2024. - **Then shrunk to one corporate office** - in April 2026 the company proposed closing eight of those branches, consolidating all customer relationships and existing loan accounts into the corporate branch office on Anna Salai in Chennai's Nandanam district. - **Headquarters in Howrah** - the registered office sits on G.T. Road in Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, anchoring the company's original eastern geography. # Group structure and partners **The company is controlled by a single promoter entity, Ultraplus Housing Estate Private Limited, which holds just over 54% with no shares pledged - and it funds itself by borrowing from related automobile companies and by issuing debentures to institutional investors.** - **Promoter with skin in the game** - Ultraplus Housing Estate Private Limited owns 54.123% of the equity, none of it encumbered, on a base of roughly 1.27 crore shares of face value ₹10 each. - **Related-party funding from auto groups** - the company takes inter-corporate loans, term loans and optionally convertible debentures from Khivraj Automobile and Infrastructure, Khivrajkamal Motors, and Khivraj Motors, all on arm's-length terms. - **Debentures are the main funding tool** - it has issued 11% unlisted unsecured optionally convertible debentures and non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis, and has shareholder approval to raise up to ₹100 crore through various debenture structures including market-linked and subordinated debt qualifying as Tier-II capital. - **Borrowings are secured by everything** - institutional loans are backed by hypothecation of receivables and book debts, mortgages on immovable property, promissory notes, and pledges on movable assets.