Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) was set up in 1948 under industrial Finance Corporation Act, 1948 with the basic objective of making medium and long‑term credits more readily available to industrial concerns in India. After the forty five years of a rich and varied history as the pioneer industrial finance institution in India, IFCI began operations from 1st July,1993 as a public limited company and is known as The Industrial Finance Corporation of India Ltd. (IFCI Ltd.). The main idea behind converting/restricting IFCI from statutory corporation to a public limited company, incorporated under the Companies Act 1956, was to ensure greater flexibility pond to the changing needs of the financial system.
Financing operations
of IFCI, principally include the following:
i)
Project Financing
ii)
Financial Services
iii)
Comprehensive Corporate Advising Services.
Under the Project Financing, financial assistance from IFCI is available
to eligible industrial concerns in the corporate and co‑operative sectors
for their new units, as also for their expansion, diversification and
modernisation programmes in the form of rupee loans, foreign currency sub‑loans,
underwriting and direct subscription to shares/debentures, guarantees for
deferred payments foreign currency loans, etc.
Financial Services include; Equipment Financing; Equipment Leasing;
Equipment Procurement; Equipment Credit; Instalment Credit; Suppliers Credit;
Buyers' Credit; and Finance to Leasing & Hire‑Purchase Concerns;
Corporate Loans; Short‑term loans and Working Capital Loans.
These cover funds support for technical consultancy, risk capital,
venture capital, technology development, tourism development and finance,
housing development and finance, institutional infrastructure for development
of capital market, entrepreneurship development, management development and
development of rural and urban poor through voluntary organisation development
of biotechnology, development of science and technology entrepreneurs' parks,
development of research, etc. and subsidy support through Promotional Schemes
to help the entrepreneurs and enterprises in the Village and Small Scale
Industries.
As per the policy of Govt. of India, Infrastructure sector is now
accessible to private promoters, drawn from the Indian Corporate sector jointly
foreign majors. Since a significant business potential is available in Sector,
IFCI is reorienting its lending focus to tap such private promoters.
Accordingly it has opened a separate Infrastructure Industry Division with
necessary technical experts and guidance.
Entrepreneurial guidance is available from the Corporate Office at New
Delhi and the various offices of IFCI spread all over the country. For detailed
project counselling, viability studies of the industrial units and investment
opportunities for Non‑Resident Indians (NRIs), IFCI's Merchant Banking
and Allied Business Department is there to help the prospective entrepreneur
and existing clients.
Industrial Finance Corporation of India has its head office at New Delhi
at:
IFCI Tower, 61, Nehru Place, 26487444
P.B. No. 4499, Voicemail:
New Delhi ‑ 110 019. 26488301
E‑mail : ifci@grasdlol.vsnl.net.in Fax :
91(011) 26488471
Website: www.ifeiltd.com 91(011) 26230201
Like other financial institutions in the country, IFCI had in the past
been raising rupee funds at fixed rates of medium and long‑term maturity
m due to the lack of a fully developed market for floating rate instrument
India. In order to meet the business needs, IFCI had raised large borrowing
fixed interest rates as high as 17% p.a. during the years 1994 to 1998.
Although the progressive drop in interest rates led borrowers to insist on a
reduced rate of interest even on their existing loans so as to remain viable,
IFC1 in the past unable to refinance its own liabilities at lower rates due to
fixed maturity and interest rates. The problem for IFCI was further compounded,
as it could not also raise fresh funds at lower rates in order to refinance
earlier high cost maturing loans due to downgrading of its credit rating. In
these circumstances, the restructuring of the liabilities of IFCI has become
essential.
In keeping with the on‑going consolidation of operations, the
assistance sanctioned and disbursed by IFCI during 2002‑03 was largely on
account of restructuring assistance.
IFCI increased its thrust on expanding the advisory services business
during the year. It has been able to get many prestigious assignments through
competitive bidding from the Government and public sector organizations ach as
corporatisation of Government of India department, bid‑process management
and formation of joint ventures. In addition, assignments relating to
investment appraisals, syndication and business restructuring were also
undertaken for public and private sector entities during the year 2002‑03.
IFCI future strategic imperatives would include:
- Restructuring of
balance liabilities;
- Retirement of high
cost debts;
- Aggressively addressing
NPA‑related problems; Improving profitability;
- Restoration of the
original credit ratings;
- According focussed
attention to Small and Medium‑scale Enterprises (SME); and
- Addressing
organizational issues such as skills development, which would enable employees to proactively manage the changes in the
operating environment.
The above actions are proposed to he taken with the intention of
improving the liquidity and profitability position and credit rating of IFCI
and to enable to successfully focus on providing both fund‑based
assistance and fee‑based services to the SME segment.
As part of evolving a new business model, IFCI intends to utilize its
loan origination capabilities to increase its business through the
securitisation route and through exploring possibilities of having tie ups with
Banks/Institutions, which have large loanable funds and need loan origination
and project evaluation/appraisal expertise.
IFCI has also initiated action to revamp the organizational set up to
make it more focussed, pro‑active and responsive to changes in the
operating climate and clients' requirements.
Since IFCI is nowadays mainly engaged in restructuring of its assets and
liabilities, and is waiting for a revival under a Government support scheme,
the details of its scheme for project finance and other schemes are not being
discussed.
The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Limited
(ICICI) renamed as ICICI limited and now merged with ICICI Bank, was a diversified
financial institution founded on January 5, 1955, through the initiative of the
Government of India, the World Bank and representatives of Indian industries
ICICI's principal business was to provide medium and long term project
financing/leasing and other types of financial and advisory services to private
industry in India. In its role as a financial institution, ICICI sought to
operate in general accordance with the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.
ICICI strived to provide quality service to its customers and placed great
emphasis on maintaining a well trained and professional staff at all times.
ICICI had, reputation for financial strength, a tradition of excellent service,
an expertise for risk management and the strategic focus to succeed in the
century ahead. ICICI, which was promoted by ICICI, had been merged with ICICI.
With the liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s, it was
necessary for ICICI to be able to provide a wider range of financial services.
In order to accomplish this, ICICI needed to enter new areas of business such
as commercial banking and asset management and to expand its investment banking
business For regulatory and other strategic reasons, specialized subsidiaries
were set up in the areas of investment banking, commercial banking, asset
management, investor services and broking, home finance, venture funds
management, infotech services etc.
In addition, ICICI had diversified its own range of activities into
several fee and commission‑based services, including custodial services
to cater to the needs of the foreign and domestic institutional investors. As a
result of the above, ICICI had been able to create a Universal Banking Group
offering a broad range of complementary financial products and services to a large
client base,
With its merger with ICICI Bank, the ICICI group's financing and banking
operations, both wholesale and retail have been integrated in a single entity.
ICICI's integrity as a financial institution has, though diminished, but its
role as financial institution has further strengthened in the sense that it now
standsby with every individual and not with few corporates alone.
As a commercial bank, ICICI Bank provides finance for various projects
like other banks and is subject to same norms as them.