"We have an in-house arm which finances the sale of our agri-machinery. Though it is not easy to venture into retail financing in the country, we are actively looking at the possibility," New Holland Tractors (India) Pvt Ltd -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Holland NV -- director, Jonathan Walsh, said here.

The company has initiated a study to assess the feasibility of the project and is yet to decide on the nature of the venture and time frame for bringing its retail financing arm here he added.

This is part of the company's plans to expand presence in the indian market place with its range of tractors. Towards this end, New Holland is also planning to introduce new models in the lower-end segment of the market.

The company had introduced a top-end 70hp model in the market last year and has followed it up with a 50hp versionrecently. Eventually, the company aims to manufacture and market Ford tractors in the 35-50-70hp range in India.

Future plans for New Holland India envisage manufacture of other farm machinery like combined harvesters, balers, mowers, backhoe. All this would form part of the company's approved investment plan of $75 million for India.

However, it is not keen on exporting the made-in-India tractors prior to the year 2001. "We have no immediate plans to address the export market with the tractors we produce in India," Walsh said.

The company intends to stabilise production from its facility in Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) prior to foraying into the international markets. "We are presently ramping up production to meet the demand in the domestic market and once we are able to satisfy the demand here, we will look outside the country," he added.

"We have access to countries across the globe through our existing dealer network but we have to first make sure that we are in a position to service thesemarkets with spare parts. We expect to reach that level first. We certainly will export in the future and that is, most likely to be, by 2001."

Though no particular destinations have been targetted as yet, Walsh said, the made-in-India tractors would fetch a good demand in south-east Asian, African and West Asian markets.

The company, Walsh said, is also working towards getting its global vendors to India. "We have already helped a number of our global vendors set up shop in India in collaboration with local partners. For our 35hp tractor, a lot more would be coming into the country."

This would help the company achieve a 90 per cent local content level in its tractors over the next one year from the present level of 60 per cent.

New Holland has already put off plans to foray into the construction industry in India. "We are not looking at the construction industry in India. The construction arm of New Holland is a joint venture between Fiat and Hitachi and this tie-up is not extended to India.Besides, Hitachi already has a venture here with the Tata group and so there is no likelihood of the construction arm coming to India," Walsh said.

"Moreover, we have no immediate plans to foray into the construction sector in India. But, we cannot talk about the future, particularly after the recent tie-up with Case Corporation," he added. New Holland and Case have joined hands to form a $12-billion global equipment company in a cash merger transaction recently. Under the agreement, a new company would be created with Fiat retaining a 71 per cent controlling interest.

However, he stated that the immediate fall-out of the New Holland-Case venture on the Indian market could not be established. "It is an international tie-up and is very difficult to say at this stage as to what implication would it have on India. The tie-up itself is in a very early stage presently," Walsh said.

New Holland's earth-moving and construction equipment business offers different product lines -- hydraulic excavators, crawlerloaders, bulldozers, graders and scrapers.