• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

The company is hopeful of a 25 per cent growth in business during the first half of the current financial year (which will end on September 30, 2002).

KOLKATA, Sept. 2

SREI International Finance Ltd (Srei), which has now diversified into newer finance products and services, has entered into a debt securitisation alliance with ICICI Bank.

Talking to newspersons here after the company's 17th AGM, the Managing Director, Mr Hemant Kanoria, said under the alliance, unseasoned construction equipment receivables would be bought by ICICI Bank on an ongoing basis with a maximum limit of Rs 400 crore. Reflecting the company's leadership position in this niche segment of construction equipment, the tie-up is expected to enhance the company's leveraging capacity.

Addressing shareholders, the Chairman, Mr Salil Gupta, said the company's asset finance group had posted a growth of 40 per cent for the year under review. Expecting to maintain strong growth in the business segments of equipment and commercial vehicles finance, he said synchronised working with international companies such as Volvo, Caterpillar, Tatra, L&T-Komatsu and Ingersoll-Rand besides Indian manufacturers like Greaves, Gujarat Apollo, Atlas Copco and BEML had strengthened Srei's market position, with a higher market share and diversified portfolio of quality assets from these vendors.

According to Mr Gupta, by extending its business into the three areas of infrastructure, equipment and renewable energy finance, Srei has minimised most of the risks emanating from the uncertainties that govern the NBFC segment. NBFCs, Mr Kanoria felt, would have to continuously expand business horizons, do product innovations and manage transactions in a cost-effective manner.

Describing the first quarter performance as satisfactory, he said he was hopeful of a 25 per cent growth in business during the first half of the current financial year (which will end on September 30, 2002), compared to that in the corresponding half of last financial year. Competition in the sector, he felt, had further intensified as all niche players had turned to retail lending owing to diminishing opportunities for further lending in the corporate segments.

Pointing out that the company was facing stiff competition from MNC competitors, as they were in a position to raise funds at a much cheaper rate on the backing of the MNC parent, he said Srei has been successful in reducing cost of funds substantially through better fund management.

Srei's profit before tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2002, climbed to Rs 4.02 crore from the Rs 3.72 crore for the corresponding quarter of 2000-01.

Srei's fresh disbursements in 2001-02 were to the extent of Rs 636 crore, compared to the Rs 453 crore in the previous year, recording a growth of 40 per cent. Mr Gupta told shareholders that this had resulted in the total asset base of the company increasing to Rs 1,171 crore as on March 31, 2002 against the Rs 864 crore last year.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Re strengthens; gilts rise

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line