­Experienced management team driving business growth

Power2SME Private Limited (P2S) is led by Mr. R. Narayan (Founder & CEO). Mr. Narayan is a seasoned entrepreneur with around two decades of corporate experience. He was previously associated with working in sales and marketing profiles for Microsoft, Oracle and TATA Group. Having worked with SME segment closely and understanding their nuances he co-founded Denave India Private Limited a technology powered sales enabling services company. Later in 2012, with the support of marquee investors, Mr. Narayan founded Power2SME to further his cause to empower the SME segment. Mr. Narayan is supported by an experienced professional team with diverse expertise in areas of finance, treasury, investments, customer-ready technology solutions, networking alliances amongst others. Accel and Inventus Capital have board representation and P2S benefits from their expertise. Mr. Mahendran Balachandran (Partner – Accel) and Mr. Parag Dhol (Inventus Capital) are on the board of P2S.
The management team has been able to on-board various suppliers on their platform and blue-chip companies as customers to fulfill their MRO requirements like Vendata, Hindustan Zinc, Orient, L&T and others. P2S has seen an improvement in its NMV from 696.36 Cr FY22 to Rs.1046 Cr. for FY23. The company had seen a decline in NMV in FY21 (Rs 342 Cr), the decline was on account of company’s migration to new credit policies for its customers followed by slowdown in economy and country-wide lockdowns induced by pandemic. The company had earlier achieved an NMV of Rs. 675 Cr. during FY2019 and also incurred losses and bad-debts on account of non recoveries of due from receivables. The management team since then has taken steps to improve its credit policies. The subsequent decline in traded volumes has resulted in the company not being able to achieve optimal levels of volumes required for break-even. Acuité believes that, the adoption of robust credit policies, on-boarding blue-chip clients to drive volumes and overall experience of the management will help the company to grow in a sustainable manner.

Funding from marquee investors, comfortable capitalization level

The capital support from the marquee investors, like Kalaari Capital, Accel, Inventus Capital, Mr. Nandan Nilekani and IFC has resulted in healthy capitalization levels.  P2S has low gearing and has been able to raise funds from banks and financial institutions. The investors have invested since the inception of P2S and have ~78 percent stake in the company as on June-23. P2S’s networth stood at Rs. 61.45 Cr. as on Mar-23 with a gearing of 2.05 times. The support of the investors has helped the company to focus on business growth while taking corrective actions for a sustainable business model. The backing of the Investors has enable P2S to offer trade financing through their NBFC arm – Auriolus Finvest Private Limited thus enabling the Group to offer comprehensive solutions to their SME partners with respect to their raw material as well as their working capital requirements. The promoters are in discussion with existing and some new investors for another round of funding to drive growth in the volumes in its trading business and to foster its NBFC business to help build its AUM. These investments in business could help the P2S Group achieve break-even levels in medium term.  
Acuité believes that the business risk profile of P2S will benefit from the presence and support of marquee investors.

­Moderate financial risk profile
P2S commenced its operations in 2012.  The group reported loss of Rs. 28.52 Cr. for FY2023 over an operating income of Rs.1056.68 Cr. as compared to loss of Rs. 31.34 Cr. over an operating income of Rs. 703.2 Cr. during FY2022. The company will be able to achieve break-even only once its achieves optimal levels of volumes in its trading segment and rationalize its high operating costs. Since the company is currently less dependent on funding lines from Banks & NBFC/FI for its business operations, the finance cost and debt repayment obligations remain low. For the NBFC Auriolus Finvest Private Limited the Net Interest Income (NII) improved to Rs. 4.92 Cr. as on March 31, 2023, from 1.54 Cr. as on March 31, 2022. However, as the NBFC arm grows, the company would be in requirement of funding lines which could further add to the existing stress on profitability metrics unless, the company is able to optimize its overall operating costs and scale up business volumes. Additional capital infusions from investors, could help the business to maintain lower levels of finance costs in medium term, thus enabling the company to focus its resources in driving business growth.

Competitive nature of industry and susceptibility to cyclicality nature of industry
P2S competes with various players in the organized and unorganized segments in trading industry, thus limiting the pricing power. Metals (especially steel) constitutes around 60 percent of the total NMV for P2S. The steel consumption is majorly dependent on the economic activities taking place in and around the country, any significant slowdown in this industry will impact the revenue of the P2S’s customers thus impacting P2S’s credit profile.