ON APRIL 13 THIS YEAR, shares of AU Small Finance Bank surged 17% after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved re-appointment of Sanjay Agarwal as managing director and CEO for three years. This showed the faith investors have in the bank’s 51-year-old promoter, a chartered accountant who dreamt big in his youth, tried his hands at businesses such as finance company, trucking, garment export and granite in mid-90s, only to realise that his real passion was finance. In early 2000, he exited his companies when his uncle offered him his finance company, LN Finco Gems Private Ltd., set up in 1996. It was rechristened as AU Financiers in 2005. The next big break came in 2009 when AU raised ₹30 crore from Motilal Oswal Private Equity. With over two decades of experience as a non-banking finance player, the company became AU Small Finance Bank on April 19, 2017, after getting a small finance bank licence from RBI.
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