Devendra Kumar Vyas, CEO, Srei Equipment Finance Ltd
The construction equipment (CE) segment has already been riding a massive infrastructure push by the government. The CE market grew by around 32 per cent in 2016-17 (unit sales). The continued thrust by the government on infrastructure building, like the recently announced mega road projects worth Rs 6.92 lakh crore, will ensure that the growth in CE witnessed in the past continues, and we should see the sales of equipment sector grow around 14 per cent CAGR (units sales) over fiscals 2017-18 to 2019-20.

Challenges
In India, loan financing is the most preferred mode of CE financing. Financing accounts for about 80-85 per cent of the CE purchases. Worldwide, leasing has emerged as an important tool for asset creation. Despite being amongst the top 10 economies, the leasing penetration in India for CE was nascent at around 6-8 per cent of the overall CE market for 2016-17, compared to 50-60 per cent globally. Before GST implementation, multiplicity of taxes and invoicing complexity led to difficulties in execution of leasing solutions, thus curbing the growth of the equipment leasing industry. Post GST, there is greater clarity on the tax structure. Given the recent announcement by the GST council, in lowering of tax rates, equipment leasing business in India, is now well poised for a growth similar to developed nations. The challenge now is creating awareness for the product. We are actively involved in promoting leasing as a product and providing leasing schemes to our customers. With a little support, the leasing market has the potential to grow exponentially and aid in the nation's capital formation.

Another challenge is the historically under-developed secondary market for used equipment. However, we are now seeing emergence of new e-platforms for trading in used equipment, which holds the promise of synthesising this segment.

A platform of opportunities
This edition of Excon is expected to be the biggest in terms of sheer size and magnitude with more than 1,000 exhibitors and 40,000 business visitors. Like every edition, we are expecting a lot of new and innovative product launches from our manufacturer partners. Events like Excon serve as confluence ground for all industry participants. It provides us a perfect platform to meet our key stakeholders and understand their needs. We generate a lot of enquiries and eventual business at the event.

Showcasing innovations
As always, Srei Equipment Finance Ltd (SEFL) will have a big presence at the exhibition. We have tied up with leading reputed global equipment manufacturers and are coming up with a lot of exciting schemes for our customers at the event. This year, our focus is to provide customised financing solutions covering the entire asset life-cycle to our customers. We will also be launching exciting leasing schemes and also loyalty schemes for our customers. Our customers can also participate in commercial games to win attractive interest rates and terms. Our customer engagement activities will not be limited to the venue, but will instead be carried out across the country.

As a tradition, we organised a get-together called 'Milap' with all our manufacturer partners on the eve of the inaugural day. Milap celebrates the spirit of partnership and acknowledges the support and contribution of our manufacturer partners in our growth.

This year, we will have our biggest presence in Excon with our stall in an outdoor pavilion of about 17,000 sq ft - the biggest-ever in the CE finance space. Our patrons can experience technological innovation in equipment financing, audio-visual and interactive information systems, with fun and engaging activities at our outdoor stall 27.

Expectations
We generated a business of more than Rs 500 crore during the last edition of Excon in 2015. The equipment sales (units) have grown at a CAGR of around 23 per cent in the last two financial years. We are hopeful that our business during the event will reflect the industry trend.