CSC, Adani Capital in pact to offer working capital to 6k sellers

The CSC, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Adani Capital, the nonbanking financial company (NBFC) arm of Adani Group reached the agreement last month, one of them said.

“The idea is to enable the retailer to have enough liquidity to order in bulk from the distributor of companies rather than having to wait for the order to cross a certain threshold and then place the orders. Adani Capital will extend working capital to the retailers at a reasonable rate,” the official quoted above said.

Adani Group did not respond to ET’s queries seeking to know the details of their agreement with CSC. As a part of the agreement, a retailer working with the CSC can request a loan of up to Rs 5 lakh per month from Adani Capital and use the funds to place orders with the bigger distributors. Until now, retailers had to collect and wait for order value to cross at least Rs 1 lakh before placing orders with the distributors.

“The distributors from companies seek a minimum order threshold from retailers in rural areas before they expand their own networks to reach these places. Since the order value of village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) retailers generally does not cross the one lakh rupees threshold that often, the product shipment is delayed,” an official said.

Last year in September, the Adani Group invested an undisclosed amount to acquire a 10% equity stake in CSC-run Grameen eStore through its financial services arm, Adani Finserve. The 10% stake gives Adani Group a seat on the board of Grameen estore, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of CSC.

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