Niren Suchanti in Calcutta on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, Oct. 4: Pressman group firm NuCent Finance Ltd has diversified into residential and commercial real estate development.

Following a total restructuring of the business, NuCent has exited from financial services and become debt free, said Niren Suchanti, chairman and CEO of Pressman Advertising and Marketing Ltd.

NuCent’s first real estate development project will come up in Siliguri on a 5.25-acre plot. The Rs 45-crore project will have a total built-up area of approximately 5 lakh square feet.

“It would be financed through internal accruals, short-term borrowings and by selling space,” said Suchanti. The project will be designed by Dulal Mukherjee and Associates and is expected to be completed within two years from the start of construction.

“Project implementation has started and construction is likely to begin in the first quarter of 2006,” he said.

NuCent moved out of financial services business recently. It will shortly surrender its licence to run as a non-banking financial company to the Reserve Bank of India. Following this, the name of the company will be changed, he said.

The company had restructured the capital base and repaid all fixed-deposit holders with accrued interest, Suchanti said. The paid-up capital of the company now stands at Rs 2.81 crore.

The company made a net profit of Rs 57.1 lakh for the quarter ended September 30 compared with Rs 39.29 lakh in the same period last fiscal.

For the half-year ended September 30, its net profit stood at Rs 75.96 lakh.