Cent Bank Home Finance Pat At Rs 4.5 Crore

Cent Bank Home Finance Ltd (CBHFL), a housing finance subsidiary of Central Bank of India, has registered a profit after tax of Rs 4.51 crore in 1999-2000. Profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 5.91 crore. The company has announced a 11 per cent dividend.

The company has decided to waive off two equal instalments for borrowers who are regular in repayments. The maximum repayment period has also been increased to 20 years.

Managing director R K Baxi said a number of benefits were being offered to borrowers.

"We can now sanction a housing loan up to 85 per cent and the margin money has been reduced to 10 per cent in certain cases. While in project loans, an incentive of one per cent reduction in interest rate has been introduced for the benefit of builders who are project borrowers and bring individual finance of at least 50 per cent of the project cost," he said.

Cent Bank has its network in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi. It has its presence in unrepresented areas through Central Bank branches.

The company has registered a 67.88 per cent growth in individual housing loans over the previous year and a 67.36 per cent over 1998-99.

It sanctioned loans of Rs 74.80 crore this year against Rs 44.55 crore last year. The cumulative sanctions have reached Rs 185 crore.

Baxi attributed the performance to a unique scheme of free accident insurance cover to all borrowers in individual loan sector.

Last year, the company launched another scheme to offer loans for house furnishing to the extent of 25 per cent of the total housing loan sanction.