WASHINGTON, D.C., April 20 -- To help finance the long-term investment needs of small and medium businesses in India, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is extending a loan of US$3 million to India Equipment Leasing Ltd. (IEL), a lease and hire-purchase company based in Madras. IEL was established in 1986 to provide leasing and hire-purchase equipment financing to the construction, transportation, communications, and office and medical automation sectors in the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. With IFC funding, IEL will be able to carry out a US$7.5 million expansion and diversify its activities to finance more sophisticated capital equipment. According to IFC investment officer Ravi Vish, IFC has been working with the Indian government in helping to develop and expand India's leasing industry. IFC has helped to set up four leasing companies that are functioning as "operational models" in the four major regions of India: IEL in South India, India Leasing Devel
opment Ltd. in North India, Nicco Uco Financial Services Ltd. in Calcutta, and Twentieth Century Finance Corporation Ltd. in Bombay. IFC has also invested in Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd., a financial services company that specializes in infrastructure finance. These IFC-assisted projects, Vish said, "will help to counterbalance the state's current domination of the financial sector in India." IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the largest source of financing for private sector projects in developing countries, is a founding shareholder of IEL. The other founding shareholders are Sundaram Finance Ltd. and the State Bank of India. (30)