The US-headquartered Equifax Inc may not raise for now its equity holding in the Indian unit Equifax Credit Information Services (ECIS) so as to achieve majority ownership in the joint venture.
There is no such proposal on the table, Sanjay Patel, Managing Director & CEO of ECIS, told BusinessLine when asked if Equifax Inc would look at buying stake of other "strategic investors" so as to gain majority ownership in the Indian unit.
But ECIS is well positioned to reap the benefits of added flexibility that the Government move to hike FDI cap from 49 per cent to 74 per cent has brought to the credit information sector, Patel said.
Besides hiking the FDI cap in credit information sector to 74 per cent from 49 per cent, the Government had in July last year allowed foreign investment in this sector under the automatic route.
Equifax Inc is the largest shareholder (less than 49 percent) in ECIS, which was formed as a joint venture with six leading Indian financial sector players way back in 2010.
"We are currently very happy with the relationships with our partners (strategic investors)", Patel said indicating that the current ownership structure in ECIS was unlikely to be alyered for now.
Patel's remarks are significant as it came a day after global credit and information services company TransUnion announced that it has upped its stake in Cibil --market leader in India in credit information space-- to a majority 55 per cent.
This was the first instance of a foreign investor gaining a majority ownership (51 per cent above) in an Indian credit information company.
TransUnion's move to gain majority ownership in Cibil will not place ECIS at a competitive disadvantage at the marketplace, Patel said.
"We don't see it that way at all", he said
Last year (2013-14) had been a good one for ECIS and the company will look to bring in new products based on the needs of the market, Patel said.
A credit information company (CIC) collects and maintains records of an individual’s payments pertaining to loans and credit cards.
These records are submitted to the CIC by banks and other credit institutions, on a monthly basis.
This information is then used to create credit information reports which are provided to credit institutions in order to help evaluate and approve loan applications or any other credit applications