Sicom Ltd, the industrial development finance firm of the Maharashtra government, has decided not to finance any greenfield ventures by new-generation entrepreneurs, and will continue to fund established, mid-sized entities instead.
Sicom is also planning to pare its non-performing assets (NPAs) to under six per cent in the current fiscal from 10.55 per cent as on March 31, 2001, by pushing recoveries of bad loans. It's NPAs amount to Rs 190 crore.
The focus of Sicom, which has an asset base of Rs 2,000 crore, will be on extending advances to the established enterprises in the software/ hardware segments, bio-technology and the service sectors, according to a senior official.
It intends to grow its asset base to Rs 2,500 crore in 2001-02. Towards this end, the corporation would be raising Rs 400 crore during the current fiscal via debt, plough back the funds that accrue to the corporation by way of interest and principal repayments and through the recoveries of non-performing assets.
"As far as lending goes, we have enough leeway as our capital adequacy ratio is around 17 per cent. Moreover, we will speed up recoveries. Through this route we did pare NPAs from 14.57 per cent in 1999-2000 to 10.55 per cent in 2000-01 " the official said.
Sicom has the maximum exposure to the service sector (Rs 264 crore), followed by the textiles sector (Rs 212 crore), electronics (Rs 204 crore), metals (Rs 150 crore) and infrastructure (Rs 149 crore) among others.
Sources pointed out that Sicom was working on very thin margins. Typically, it raises funds from public sector undertakings and commercial banks at 11 to 12 per cent and lends on an average at 14 per cent.
