Weaver Services Pvt Ltd, a housing financier backed by private equity firm Gaja Capital and venture capital firm Lightspeed, has agreed to buy Centrum Capital Ltd’s stake in Centrum Housing Finance Ltd to make its second acquisition.
Mumbai-listed Centrum Capital will sell its stake in Centrum Housing for Rs 430 crore ($49 million), it said in a stock exchange filing. This means the deal values Centrum Housing, in which Centrum Capital owns a 56% stake, around Rs 768 crore.
Centrum Housing also counts Morgan Stanley Private Equity among its investors. Centrum Capital didn’t specify whether Morgan Stanley would also be selling its stake in the housing finance unit.
VCCircle first reported in June that Weaver Services was in the fray to snap up Centrum Housing Finance. Centrum Group had been looking for a buyer for its housing finance arm for about two years.
The development comes days after Weaver said that it raised $170 million (Rs 1,482 crore) from investors led by Lightspeed and PremjiInvest. Gaja Capital also participated in the round.
Centrum Housing Finance’s assets under management were valued at Rs 1,640 crore as of June-end. It has offices across 100 cities and a client base of over 18,000 customers. Its reported turnover during the last financial year ended March 2025 was Rs 213 crore, while the company’s net worth was Rs 475 crore.
“Our housing finance business has seen sustained profitable growth since inception. We are happy that we have found an ambitious and highly capable platform…that will drive and significantly scale CHFL’s operations going forward,” said Jaspal Bindra, the executive chairman of Centrum Group.
The housing finance company was incorporated in March 2016. In February 2020, it received an equity infusion of around Rs 190 crore for around a 25% stake from a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia.
As on March 31, 2024, Centrum Capital held a 56.4% stake in the lender while Morgan Stanley owned almost 25%. Other Centrum Group companies owned a 17.5% stake in the housing finance company.
Meanwhile, Weaver, a new-age home finance player, was founded last year by Satrajit Bhattacharya, who previously oversaw mergers and acquisitions at Housing Development Finance Corporation. HDFC was India's biggest mortgage lender before it merged with HDFC Bank. A few other former HDFC employees were also brought on board.
Last year, Weaver agreed to acquire Capital India Home Loans and raised Rs 800 crore ($95 million) from investors such as Gaja Capital and Lok Capital to finance the deal. The acquisition cost about Rs 267 crore and received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval in May.
