The Hindu Business Line : Bajaj Auto Finance to ride on new areas

Pune, July 11 Outsourced call centres targeting the personal loan segment and old truck financing are some of the intiatives being taken by Bajaj Auto Finance Ltd (BAFL). Talking to presspersons after the annual general meeting of the company, Mr Dipak Poddar, Managing Director, BAFL, said the company has set up a 75-seat call centre to handle the personal loan segment.

The centre, which became operational from July 10, would initially handle customers who are prompt in repayment, and is targeting the lower end of the market. The ticket price that it was looking at was in the Rs 20,000-50,000 range, he said.

Asked whether the company would cross-sell with the insurance companies, Mr Poddar said there is no such plan on the anvil. The personal loan segment market is valued at more than Rs 30,000 crore.

Mr Poddar said that BAFL plans to hit the domestic market with the truck finance initiative during the festive season.

He, however, added that it would also look at a smaller portion of the new truck sector. The company would buy the old trucks, refurbish them as required and sell them with its finance.

Asked whether BAFL would enter the used car segment, Mr Poddar said that this segment required warranty, which the company would not be able to handle now.

Looking at the first quarter results of the current fiscal, he said the disbursements have touched Rs 743 crore, up by 30 per cent for the first quarter of 2006.

The total income was Rs 105.20 crore against Rs 67.83 crore for the same period, up. 55 per cent. Despite this income growth, the profit had remained modest.

The profit after taxation stood at Rs 4.11 crore (Rs 3.44 crore) for the corresponding period of 2006.

Mr Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, BAFL, in his speech, noted that the company was investing in people, processes and technology and said it was moving away from its legacy systems to a new centralised system. It has selected ‘Intellect Suite’ from Polaris Software Lab to cater to the lending module, and SAP for its accounting requirements.

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