GECF identifies 'focus growth areas' for financing

Chennai, Sep 28: GE Commercial Finance India (GECF), one of leading non-banking financial companies has identified eight major "focus growth areas" for financing in India.

Addressing a press conference here, GECF Presdient and CEO Tejpreet S Chopra said the company has identified real estate, construction, mining, transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, energy and Information Technology (IT) as the focus growth areas for financing in the country.

Stating that transportation, infrastructure, healthcare and IT were expected to grow at a faster phase in the coming years, Mr Chopra said the company was willing to finance for airport expansion, development of ports and laying of toll roads in the country on the infrastructure side.

On healthcare, the company, which had been funding on the equipment side, was now ready to finance for pharmaceutical companies, research activities and hospital upgradation.

He said GECF had invested 63 million US dollars in the IT sector last year, and would be spending more this year.

In the energy sector, investments to the tune of 200 billion dollars were expected to take place in the next ten years and in the IT sector, BPOs would require more financial assistance, he said.

GEFC had an asset base of over a billion dollars in the form of equity and debts.

While replying a question, he agreed that the banks were in an advantageous position to get cheaper funds, but the strength of GECF lays in industrial and assets specialisation. They aimed for multiple growth in India and were not looking for slow and steady acceleration, he added.

He said as far as the cost of funds were concerned they were competitive.

UNI