A newly acquired Non Banking Financial Company – Investment and Credit Company (NBFC-ICC) license from the Reserve Bank of India which replaces the earlier Residuary Non-Banking Finance Company (RNBC) license could well be Peerless General Finance and Investment Company’s (PGFI) trump card to turn around and achieve its turnover target of Rs 1,000 crore in the next couple of years. Or so, feels the company management.
The nine-decade-old company, once considered the small-savings financial pioneer of eastern India, was forced to diversify and foray into sectors like health care, hospitality and real estate development after the RBI shut down its core RNBC business a decade and a half ago. Figures emerging from the Annual General Meeting on Monday showed that PGFI registered a Rs 635 crore annual turnover for FY 23 which is a 22 per cent growth over its previous fiscal. Profit Before Tax for the same period stood at Rs 196 crore. Subsidiary businesses put together, PGFI posted an impressive 117 per cent profit growth.
Compared to the pre-Covid average growth rate of around 6 per cent for the group, the current figures promise a transformation story for the once-embattled management which even a year ago was struggling in legal corridors to keep its head up against a takeover possibility by city realtor Parasmal Lodha.
“The NBFC-ICC license frees us from the stranglehold of the previous license and grants us greater flexibility in handling our treasury,” said Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya, PGFI chairman and explained: “The investments in our subsidiaries can now directly be made from the parent company and ensure faster growth for the overall group.”
The most exciting announcement for the upcoming fiscal came from the group’s real estate arm in the form of a 15-floor twin-tower retail-commercial-residential project which is scheduled to come up over a 2.37 acre plot near the Biswa Bangla Gate in Action Area II in New Town, Rajarhat. Designed by a Thai firm, the project would be called Trium and would offer 6.4 lakh square feet of space across the three forms of holdings. At an investment of Rs 400 crore the project would be a move over Bengal Peerless, the company’s joint venture in the sector with Bengal government, and developed solely by PGFI once it completes its commitments for the ongoing JV project Avidipta II on the EM Bypass, company top brass confirmed.
“Six floors on the first tower would be reserved for retail outlets and the remaining nine for residential apartments. Retail outlet facilities across six floors would similarly be reserved in the other tower which would include a multiplex and seven floors in that block would be kept for office space with a banquet on the top floors,” Jayanta Roy, company MD, revealed.
“Essentially, half the space in the project would be reserved for retail outlets while the remaining half would be more or less equally divided for residential and office spaces,” Roy added and hinted that the retail and commercial spots were likely to be made available on rent.
The group also announced its Rs 600 crore capital expenditure prospect for its 11-floor dedicated oncology unit as part of its expansion plans of the Peerless Hospital in Calcutta, work for which is already underway. “Once complete, it would nearly double our present 400-bed hospital capacity,” Roy said, stating that the cancer care unit is scheduled for launch in 2025 followed by the remaining out patient departments a year from that.
Roy revealed that revenues for Peerless hospital has, for the first time crossed the Rs 300 crore mark which is twice compared to last year and its profit margins also stood at an all time high.
Going ahead, comprehensive upgrade operations in rooms across all Peerless hotels is also part of the company’s focus areas, the management declared. “The Hyderabad property which ran a dismal Rs 1,000 Average Room Rate (ARR) at five percent occupancy during the Covid period is presently operating at a 90 percent occupancy at a Rs 3000 ARR,” the MD stated.
“All our group companies are in the green for the first time after initiating our transformation plans last year. The encouraging trend would help us reach our target for 2025 and break the shackles of mediocre growth figures we have been posting during the past few years,” said Supriyo Sinha, Director, Business Transformation and Corporate Strategy, PGFI. Sinha, though, reminded that the current growth figures largely enjoyed the advantage of a low base and some tail wind which the company received on account of investment boom during the post-Covid times.
