Lakshmi General Fin to expand network

Kavitha Venkatraman

Chennai, Jan 6: Chennai-based Lakshmi General Finance Ltd, an associate of Sundaram Finance Ltd is planning to expand its branch network for ensuring better business during the next financial year. The company is planning to open three to four branches.

At present, it has about 25 branches with more focus to southern states. The non-banking finance company is also hopeful of closing its accounts with a disbursement level of Rs 325 crore by March 2002.
This apart, the company is also exploring the possibility of opening sub-branches wherever necessary depending upon the demand from customers.

"The idea of opening sub-branches is basically to move closer to the customers and also to cash in on the business prospects. The sub-branches will function more like a full-fledged branch and will be opened in areas untapped by the company depending upon the demand," sources said.

The company is studying various locations for opening branches and sub-branches, but is yet to take a final decision on it, sources added.
LGF has targeted to disburse approximately Rs 325 crore by March 2002. This is about 20 per cent more than the previous year performance of Rs 275 crore. "As of December 2001, the company has disbursed a little over Rs 200 crore and is hopeful of achieving the target," sources said.

For the year ended March 2001, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 11.36 crore as against Rs 11.33 crore reported during the previous fiscal. Net non-performing assets of the company as of March 2001 was 2.77 per cent of the total business assets.

However, net NPAs of LGF under its core business of hire purchase was low at 0.99 per cent of its gross hire purchase assets and 0.66 per cent of such assets after provisioning.