Magma to roll out housing finance, gold loan business FY13

Kolkata, April 27 (IANS) Magma Fincorp will roll out housing finance and gold loan businesses this fiscal. The city-base non-banking finance company is also awaiting the insurance regulator's nod to start its general insurance venture, a top company executive said Friday.

"We are launching in the current year gold loans and housing finance," Magma Fincorp Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Chamria told reporters here.

Chamria said Magma would run its housing finance business as a separate company, a subsidiary.

"We have already got the name approval (for the subsidiary). The name of the company is Magma Housing Finance Company," Chamria said.

Stating that it would concentrate on low cost housing finance, he said: "We will however not restrict ourselves only to the affordable housing."

On the gold loan business, he said: "Our long-term outlook on gold loan industry is very good."

Magma is currently in the process of completing the procedural formalities to get the final approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to start its general insurance venture.

The company is currently dealing with financing cars, commercial vehicles, construction equipment, tractors and SMEs.

The company is eyeing a disbursement growth of about 40 percent in this financial year compared to the last financial year.

"Now we have 200 branches all over India. So, we are very confident that the kind of initiatives we have taken will help us to get additional market share," Chamria averred.

He said the company was aiming to roll out 50 new branches this fiscal across the country.

Meanwhile, the company said its overall income has increased by 22 percent to Rs 10.63 billion this fiscal compared to the previous fiscal.