“India is a market of patience” - Shyam Maheshwari

 Shyam Maheshwari serves as the Founder and Partner of SSG Capital Management (Singapore) Pt. Limited, and is primarily responsible for SSG’s investment activities in India. He has 17 years of experience in the deal sourcing, analysis and investing industry. Shyam Maheshwari studied at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai for his graduation and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore for his post graduate MBA.

Shyam Maheshwari SSG speaks about the risks and rewards associated with investing in stressed assets and what they are making of the opportunity at the Mint Stressed Assets Investment Submit. He also tells that one has to be very transparent in the process. “The continuity and the ability of the process is the key. Fairness is very important and this has to be proven in India because the outside perception about India is that it takes a long time to complete the whole process despite the right law. Speed, fairness and a good transparent process is very much required”, says Mr. Maheshwari.

According to Shyam Maheshwari, India is a market of patience. In India, you have to have people with experience locally who can work through. Lack of experience, cost of doing business and the right infrastructure is some of the constraints he discusses about. “As an investor, one has to evaluate these things. India, no doubt, is a great place to invest in as a foreign investor”, he says. From Shyam Maheshwari’s point of view, we have an organization that provides credit and can also do equity. As financial investors, we have the capability of building the business. One should run the company the way it should be run. Therefore, in his view, the business excellence of the companies that we are involved in is the key.

As per Shyam Maheshwari SSG thoughts, one has to be in the game to learn the game. “They put the resources and people on the ground. They are paying to learn the game. The process is fine. It’s all about being there and contributing positively”, Shyam Maheshwari says. In his words, “expectations of our investors are similar to us. On the equity side, you just can’t make a quick buck and then leave. We have a long duration fund of eight-ten years. We need that kind of time to figure out our way. You have to create that process, discipline and risk-reward as an investor and it is not different from what a strategic investor would do”. In conclusion, Shyam Maheshwari tells that one has to be very transparent in the process and the continuity and the ability of the process is the key.

Shyam Maheshwari – One with long-term expertise on the credit and special situation side in India

 Shyam Maheshwari was the former Chief Executive Officer, Founder and Partner of SSG Capital Management. Maheshwari who has 17 years of experience in the deal sourcing, analysis and investing industry was primarily responsible for SSG’s investment activities in India. Shyam Maheshwari holds 4 board and advisor roles including Director at Holiday break and Associate Director at Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Shyam Maheshwari had 4 past jobs including Assistant Manager at Reliance Life Insurance. He graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and completed his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Shyam Maheshwari SSG has a long-term expertise on the credit and special situation side in India. In the vast array of financial services, ‘special situations’ conjures up something vaguely mysterious. Yet this is a fast-growing investor class whose mandate is potentially transformational: gain control of distressed or insolvent companies, typically by acquiring their non-performing loans, restructure with fresh capital and smarter management, bring out inherent value and finally exit via a sale. India’s IBC was designed to do much the same. Backed by law, they carried out an attempt to consolidate and accelerate the paths of different companies to debt resolution. But the IBC has now been suspended for new referrals for one year for recognition of the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on business activity.

 Shyam Maheshwari was the former Chief Executive Officer, Founder and Partner of SSG Capital Managemen

According to Shyam Maheshwari, India is perhaps the only emerging market in Asia that has opened the doors to foreigners to participate in the local currency debt and NPA markets. Shyam finds that under the BJP government, the reforms on IBC have been pathbreaking. All the ingredients of regulations, transparency, market access and the need for foreign capital are present here. Shyam Maheshwari recognizes that while the NPA pool has declined over the past few years with resolutions and recoveries, the demand for credit and resolution capital far outstrips the supply.

In Shyam Maheshwari’s view, from days in early 2000 very few foreign funds participated in India. But now all the foreign players are represented in India. Maheshwari identifies that the reason for the opportunities to become more appealing is mainly due to two factors. The first is due to perceptible reduction in the timeframe of recovery (due to IBC) and the second one is risk (due to market access). In contrast to this, one would struggle to have similar access in China where markets are probably multiples of that in India. A similar contrast with Indonesia is warranted where their bankruptcy law PKPU has not met success like IBC. According to Shyam Maheshwari, mid-market corporate may be the opportunity for credit while retail NPL could provide thrust to special situation opportunities.