Asia’s third largest and the world’s fastest expanding Indian economy portends a wide spectrum of opportunities for MSMEs. However, there is a systemic gap between the SMEs & the banking system, where barely 10 percent of SMEs have access to financing from the banking system owing to structural issues, lack of expertise & lender’s constraints. This credit market targeted at MSMEs has a propensity to scale to almost Rs.40,000 crore by the turn of the current decade.

Blu Oak Capital, a Mumbai-based boutique financial services organization, works at two distinct and critical points of a corporate life cycle - at the point where they need critical capital and guidance, and at a point where they need financial structuring and solutions to stabilise and sustain. Blu Oak‘s customised Investment banking solutions in conjunction with its overseas partners is targeted at providing intervention in critical junctures of their business cycle.

At this confluence of opportunity with expertise Blu Oak has successfully made inroads into the market by addressing the needs of a broad range of companies ranging from large corporate houses to emerging midcaps and SMEs. By leveraging its unique & critical expertise and experience, the company mentors & partners with clients through critical inflexion points in their business life cycle from ‘cradle to cusp’ in the process of value creation and subsequent monetization.

Blu Oak fine tuned the art of developing and delivering the Structured Products vertical (built for domestic and niche offshore investors), which targets mezzanine financing and related products to provide solutions that are not typically delivered by the traditional banking system. Driven by structuring skills well-honed over business cycles, its customized risk-mitigated structures built for well-defined niche segments in the mid-market to MSME space at the growth end of the business cycle and at the burgeoning ‘Credit Restructuring’ opportunity of conglomerates (in the Infrastructure, Industrials and Real Estate sectors) at the revival end of the cycle, appeals to the risk-return metrics of their niche investors.

Empowering MSMEs & Small Cap Companies
Having an intricate understanding of financing structures and unwavering commitment with a client-centric approach, Blu Oak delivers idea centric solutions to meet its client’s growth aspirations. Its customized Investment banking

solutions are derived through a
process of ideation; referenced on its past repository of similar situations, dapted and iterated to meet the dynamic needs of the customer and current market requirements. The company not only provides critical access to key decision makers but also engages with on going support and interacts with them whilst developing solutions. Further more, Blu Oak has been actively moving ahead towards raising niche funds for MSME and allied sectors to tender them growth capital along with mentoring and advisory services, thus empowering them to scale up business models and build inter-linkages. The growth aspirations of its clients are delivered through a mix of customized financial structures, strategic inputs and actions that are oriented towards enhancing the value proposition of the underlying business.

Having intricate understanding of financing structures and unwavering commitment with client centric approach, Blu Oak delivers idea centric solutions to meet its client’s growth aspirations

While its relationship with legacy clients backed by a strong transactional track record, leads to repeat mandates& referrals from them, the company’s strong partnerships & access to niche International (Hedge Funds, Developmental Institutions, Association with partner firms including Cape Horn Investment Advisory and Marshal Funds, PE, Sovereign funds, Structured Credit and Distressed Funds across Asia, Europe and America) and Domestic Investors empowers Blu Oak to offer Cross border M&A deals (both buy and sell side) and Cross border investments (both inbound and outbound) and reach-out to its target market. Nandakumar Ranganathan, Managing Partner, Blu Oak Capital, says, “Utilizing capabilities and experience garnered from our successful partnerships and our longstanding client relationships, we focus on providing the optimal mix of perspective, expertise and critical connectivity in partnering with mid market and MSME enterprises to guide them on their growth trajectory. At the other end of the business life cycle, we bring to bear our expertise in reviving and revitalizing conglomerates reeling under the burden of sub optimal financial leverage”.

Structured Credit Solutions-Revitalizing Companies
The firm’s bankers have a transnational experience of delivering solutions across business cycles, domains and geographies, which helps them to assess the difference between actual and perceived risk and develop appropriate structures to capitalize on the same. Its team is well equipped to partner with clients as they venture into inflexion points, as Blu Oak has partnered with consumer durable and mobile telephony

companies through similar inflexion points in the earlier decade. Perspective, Passion, Experience, Expertise and Commitment, embodies its DNA and acts as the fundamental beacon in its partnership with the clients.

Blu Oak works closely with its overseas Structured credit partners in delivering customized solutions. It is here that the Blu Oak team delves into its two decade long expertise of having worked on critical deals in the Steel, Telecom , Real Estate and allied sectors in evolving solutions to companies and conglomerates trying to rework their financial structures. Blu Oak partners them in evolving optimal structures to revamp their debt on one hand while assisting them in realigning their equity holdings and enhancing the values of the same.

Gearing up for Better Future
Blu Oak deems Mezz and Structured funding as the key metrics to facilitate funding for high growth companies in the small cap/MSME space and also in certain asset light domains. “This is a key driver in our initiative to raise a Mezz fund that focuses on specific opportunity templates. This would be a natural extension of our current IB activity in this space. Our track record and expertise in working with large conglomerates in realigning their financial structures and structuring critical capital positions us well to deliver 'restructuring' solutions in the financially challenged asset domain,” opines Nandakumar.

With the co-founders’ immense experience and the team’s credibility, Blu Oak has helped many MSMEs and allied sectors to raise funds and provide them growth capital along with mentoring and advisory services, thus empowering them to scale up business models. Over time, SMEs/MSMEs have begun to look at Blu Oak as one of the best channels to acquire their fund. The company is in the process of setting up an investment management platform to meet the mezzanine and special situations needs of the MSME and small cap companies, which fits into Blu Oaks’ over all strategic vision of building a platform of Inter-related niches targeted at promoters and their businesses delivering solutions through their life cycle. “This platform would extend our current efforts and focus at family owned small caps in growth businesses targeted at providing growth and specialty financing capital for value enhancement and encashment,” avers Nandakumar.

Key Management:
Nandakumar Ranganathan, Managing Partner
On the back of long standing client relationships developed over two decades of stellar investment banking & investment management experience, Nandakumar co-founded Blu Oak Capital in 2014.

Offices: Mumbai
Affiliate offices: London, New York, Santiago