Sundaram Fin Sets Eyes On Car Finance

Industry leader Sundaram Finance, plans to focus more on car finance this fiscal as it sees no major turnaround in its core truck finance business.

Talking to newspersons here yesterday, managing director G K Raman said the shift in business is mainly to offset the sluggishness in the heavy commercial vehicle segment. And, should there be any improvement in business prospects "we will be there."

For the year ended March 1998, the company has declared a 55 per cent dividend, up from 45 per cent last year.

In keeping with the general slowing down of the economy, total disbursement has fallen 8 per cent to Rs 956 crore in 1997-98, down from Rs 1041 crore in the previous year.

 

Cumulative receivables under hire purchase and leasing is a record Rs 2102 crore (Rs 2010 crore), while overdues as on March 1998 is Rs 123.61 crore, up 5.8 per cent from that recorded in the previous corresponding period.

Gross income, for the year under review was Rs 458.45 crore(Rs 420.07 crore) while profit before making provisions for bad debts and NPAs is Rs 196.45 crore (Rs 156.99 crore). After making provisions, depreciation and tax net profit is Rs 76.59 crore (Rs 68.67 crore) an 11.5 per cent increase. The PAT has grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 per cent in the past three years

The own funds of the company stands at Rs 347.17 crore (Rs 285.10 crore), an increase of 26.5 per cent annual compounded growth over the last three years

With business slowing down, Sundaram Finance says it did not take deposits for about four-and-half months last year, and resorted to bank finance and debentures to raise funds for its business.