Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Citigroup to expand retail lending in India

Citigroup Inc, the world's leading financial services group is expanding business at its Indian retail lending unit, CitiFinancial Retail Services India Ltd, a senior firm official said on Wednesday.

"Our target is to have a loan portfolio of Rs 2 billion spread over 130,000 accounts by March 2002 and Rs 4.5 billion and 300,000 accounts in 2003," CitiFinancial's director P S Jayakumar told a news conference.

Citigroup, which has a sizeable Indian presence through its banking arm Citibank, acquired a 74 per cent equity stake in a small Indian financial services firm Nation Wide Finance Ltd in March 2000.

Jayakumar said the Indian retail lending firm had grown its business from Rs 120 million in December 1999 to Rs 400 million in December 2000 and was now keen to expand its operations.

"The aim is to tap into the substantial demand for financing the purchase of durables, personal computers and two-wheelers among the Indian middle class and we aim to expand our branch network to cover 70 locations over the next two years," he said.

He said that industry estimates put the size of the Indian financial services market for retail and related lending at about $750 million. The market is growing annually at around 20 per cent.

Tell us what you think of this report