Sagarmala Finance enters maritime financing with Rs 4,300 crore fund: Why it matters

The Sagarmala Finance Corporation Limited (SMFCL) on Tuesday announced its entry into the field of maritime financing with a Rs 4,300 crore fund now approved by its board.

This comes after the SMFCL was inaugurated on June 19, 2025, as India's first Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) exclusive to the maritime sector.

The company also stated that it planned to scale up the Rs 4,300 crore fund to Rs 8,000 crore this fiscal year (FY 2025-26).

"The company is aiming to build a loan book size of Rs 8,000 crore in FY 2025-26, to further strengthen its position in maritime financing," the SMFCL said in a statement.

This comes just days after the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) released the operational guidelines for two major shipbuilding initiatives—with a total corpus of Rs 44,700 crore—aimed at boosting domestic power in the maritime sector.

The two initiatives—the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) and the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS)—will be valid until March 31, 2036, with an in-principle extension planned until 2047.

As per an ET Infra report, in September, the SMFCL had signed separate memoranda of understandings (MoUs) with the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), a state-backed infrastructure lender, and the India Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd (IIFCL), state-run venture, to act as fund managers for the Maritime Investment Fund, and to serve as the implementation agency for the Interest Incentivisation Fund.

Both the SBFAS and the SbDS are part of a comprehensive maritime package of Rs 69,725 crore, approved by the Centre in September this year.

Notably, the Centre's September package also includes a Maritime Development Fund (MDF) with a corpus of Rs 25,000 to provide long-term financing for the shipping sector.

The MDF includes the Maritime Investment Fund of Rs 20,000 crore—which gets 49 per cent participation from the Centre—and the Interest Incentivization Fund of Rs 5,000 crore.