Shriram Automall plans to add 16 new facilities by FY15

Leading asset financing small banking finance company (SBFC) Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd (STFC), which opened its second Automall in Gujarat here today, aims to add another 16 such facilities across the country by the end of this fiscal.

The Shriram Automall is an organised bidding platform including physical, online, one stop classified and negotiated deals, for acquisition and disposal of pre-owned commercial vehicles, construction and industrial equipment, tractors & agricultural equipment, passenger vehicles, three-wheelers and two-wheelers. The Ahmedabad Automall located en-route to Sanand from the city is the company's 44th such facility in the country, and the fifth one in western India.

The company aims to set up 60 such Automalls across the country by the end of this financial year. "We hope to add another 16 such Automalls by the end of this fiscal. We are basically focussing on markets where Shriram Transport has a strong presence," said Umesh G Revankar, managing director, STFC.

He added that so far STFC has auctioned about 200,000 vehicles through its Automalls in the last three years. It auctions nearly 7,000-10,000 vehicles a month on an average. Nearly 50 per cent of the vehicles come from retail sellers, while around 20-25 per cent comes from banks, and remaining from dealers and other fleet owners.

STFC charges 3-4 per cent from the sellers and as Revankar noted, around 40 per cent of the transactions are also financed by the company.

The overall growth of the Gujarat market has been flat in the last two years, he admitted. "The growth of the new vehicles market has a direct bearing on the growth of the used vehicles market. As sales of commercial vehicles have been muted, hence sales in the used category have also remained flat," he said.