Mr. V.P. Nandakumar

MD & CEO, MANAPPURAM FINANCE LTD.

Mr. V.P. Nandakumar is the Managing Director & CEO of Manappuram Finance Ltd., a leading gold loan company that is ranked among India’s top 20 non-banking finance companies. Manappuram’s origins go back to 1949 when it was founded by the late V.C. Padmanabhan, father of Mr. Nandakumar. In those days its activity was money lending carried out on a modest scale at Valapad. Mr. Nandakumar took over the reins of this one branch business in 1986 after his father expired. Since then, it has been a story of unprecedented growth, and his leadership was instrumental in scripting the success story.

Mr. Nandakumar promoted Manappuram Finance Ltd. in 1992 and today the company has a pan-India presence with 3747 branches across 27 Indian states and UTs. It has assets under management (AUM) of Rs.130.14 billion (as of June 30, 2016) and employs over 19,000 people. Recently, he steered the company’s diversification into microfinance, vehicle and housing finance, and SME lending where a successful start has been made.
 

Mr. Nandakumar’s achievements in business have earned recognition at the national level. In January 2014, Business Today, a leading business magazine, ranked him among India’s Top 100 CEOs. Earlier, in December 2013, Business World had listed his name amongst India’s Most Valuable CEOs. He is widely recognised as a leading wealth creator for investors in India’s stock market circles. On November 6, 2015, at a function to mark 20 years of listing of the equity shares of the company on the BSE (and where he rang the symbolic closing bell), it was noted that over two decades, the company had delivered annualized return of 24.6 percent to investors of its 1995 IPO. This was compared to the 11 percent returns delivered by the benchmark, Sensex. In other words, shareholder wealth since 1995 had gone up 92 times. Further, CAGR growth in AUM over this period amounted to a staggering 68 percent while profit after tax had grown at a CAGR of 49 percent.
 

Besides focus on business, the cause of the wider community is central to his vision. He established the Manappuram Foundation at Valapad in 2009 to drive the corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission of the Manappuram group. A major initiative of the Foundation is, “Janaraksha Manappuram” Free Insurance Scheme that extends health insurance to more than one lakh people belonging to the BPL category in the seven Panchayats around the Valapad area.
 

The Manappuram Foundation engages with the community in other ways as well such as extending financial assistance to reputed institutions, charities, and worthy causes. Under his leadership, the Foundation has embarked on an extensive partnership with Lions Clubs International (LCI) to jointly implement flagship programmes of the LCI in Lions District 318. These initiatives include programmes such as Lions Quest for developing life skills among adolescents and Students Safety Insurance Programme which extends free health and accident insurance cover to vulnerable students in government run schools in the District. Besides, the Foundation also collaborated with LCI for the installation of sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators and local school and public toilets to make them girl friendly. These initiatives in CSR were recognised by a special commendation from the Jury at the Golden Peacock Awards in Mumbai in January 2015.
 

Mr. Nandakumar is a Managing Committee member of leading trade and industry associations such as ASSOCHAM and FICCI. He is the Chairman of the Kerala state council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He was a member of the FICCI delegation to the Fourth Session of India-Poland Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation held at Warsaw, Poland, in June 2015.
 

Mr. V.P. Nandakumar was born in 1954 and holds a post graduate degree in science with additional qualifications in Banking and Foreign Trade. He has attended Management Development Programmes for CEOs at IIMs Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore. In December 2013, he took part in a Global Strategic Leadership Program at the Wharton Business School, Philadelphia (USA).