Chamria in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 28: Magma Leasing hopes to increase its retail lending to Rs 2,500 crore in 2006-07 from Rs 1819.60 crore in the last financial year.

Announcing the company?s financial results for 2005-06, Magma Leasing managing director Sanjay Chamria said, the company would focus on financing of used commercial vehicles and strategic construction equipment this year.

?These are the two new areas where we entered recently and they will be the company?s growth drivers for this year. In fact, we have formed a team dedicated to grow our used commercial vehicle financing business only,? Chamria said.

?Financing of used commercial vehicles fetched Rs 104 crore business last year, while construction equipment financing contributed Rs 410 crore,? he added.

Magma Leasing will also open 15 to 20 new branches during this fiscal to increase it presence across the country. ?However, most of these new branches will be set up in the western states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat,? said Chamria.

Last year, the company opened 11 branches of which three were in Rajasthan. ?We will also go to more places in down south where we are present only in Andhra Pradesh,? he added.

Riding on robust credit growth, Magma Leasing clocked an impressive 32.7 per cent increase in lending in 2005-06 to Rs 1819.60 crore from Rs 1371 crore in the previous fiscal. This translated into a 32 per cent increase in its asset base to Rs 3300 crore as on March 31, 2006 from Rs 2500 crore a year ago.

The company?s income from operations rose significantly to Rs 143.68 crore in 2005-06 from Rs 95.19 crore in the previous corresponding period.