Chennai, Nov 23 (IANS): Housing finance company Sundaram Home Finance that forayed into small business loans segment will be doubling its branch network to 50 transacting this line of business and also enter the Telangana market.

According to the company, it will take the number of small business loan branches to 50 in a year's time. The company got into this segment in October 2022 and has logged disbursements of Rs 65 crore.

Currently, it has the branches in tier 3 and 4 towns in Tamil Nadu.

For the small business segment, Sundaram Home Finance offers loans of up to Rs 20 lakh against house property to small traders, shops and entrepreneurs.

As part of its growth strategy, the company is looking to expand its presence into Telangana. This will be its first expansion outside TN in the SBL segment.

"We have made steady progress in the SBL (small business loans) segment establishing a solid presence in Tier 3 and 4 towns in Tamil Nadu. While we will look to strengthen our existing branches, we are now set to foray into locations outside Tamil Nadu in phase two of our expansion," said Lakshminarayanan Duraiswamy, Managing Director.

On the timelines for the expansion, he added: "We are currently in the process of identifying pockets of opportunities amongst the smaller towns in Tamil Nadu and Telangana and expect to finalise these in Q4 this year. We expect these new branches to become fully operational next year."

The company had also recently announced plans to expand into the affordable housing segment and is looking to open 10 branches and hire up to 75 people for that segment in the initial phase.

Sundaram Home Finance registered a net profit of Rs 117 crore on disbursements of Rs 2,307 crore for the half year ended September 30, 2023.