• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Maharishi Housing to forge tech tie-up with US mortgage outfit

Our Bureau

PUNE, March 7

MAHARISHI Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (MHDFC), promoted by the Maharishi Housing Development Trust (MHDT), Great Britain, is in talks with the association of mortgage finance companies in the US to induct the latest technology in housing loan product delivery in India.

The talks are in the final stages and the technical collaboration is likely to be in place in the next six months, according to Mr. S. R. Sinha, Managing Director, MHDFC.

Talking to Business Line, he noted that the company was set to expand its business outside India. Currently, MHDFC does not have a presence in the global market while the MHDT has a presence in 126 countries. The entry of MHDFC into the global market wou ld, however, take about two years time and would be primarily targeted at the US markets, he said. He said the company was also proposing to go public by 2003. The MHDT promotes transcendental meditation, ayurvedic products and technical and general educ ation in India.

He noted that during 1999-2000, the company had disbursed Rs. 20 crores and was targeting a disbursement of Rs. 100 crores during 2000-2001. The disbursements were made in the last three months of the current fiscal as it had obtained the approval of the National Housing Bank (NHB), a fully-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, for refinance support recently. It has also received the Certification of Registration from the NHB, he said.

Mr. Sinha said in Pune, the company has sanctioned about Rs. 1.58 crores and disbursed about Rs. 1 crore of individual housing loans during the current fiscal. The disbursement target for 2000-2001 in Pune and Mumbai was Rs. 10 crores each. The company i s planning a disbursement of Rs. 500 crores in individual housing loans within the next five years.

He said the company had also launched a Web site, www.mhdfc.com, recently and was planning to make it interactive. Besides answering enquiries on loan eligibility, loan and public

deposit application forms could be downloaded from the site. He said the company was also proposing to ensure that individual housing loans were sanctioned through the Net.