Gujarat Lease Financing (GLFL) was formed in Jul.'83 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation (GIIC) to provide financial services for all-round development of industries in and around Gujarat. The company commenced operations in 1985 and went public in 1990, reducing GIIC's stake to 51%. In 1994, GIIC entered into a joint-sector agreement with the Torrent group and reduced its stake to 26%, with the Torrent group holding 25%.
GLFL also undertakes investment banking and securities-related credit. With a plan to diversify, during 1991-92, the merchant banking division became operational and the company was registered as a category-I merchant banker with the SEBI. GLFL has also entered housing finance with the launch of GLFL Housing Finance in Mar.'93 and got it recognised by the National Housing Board.
GLFL Securities, a fully-owned subsidiary of GLFL, has the corporate membership of the BSE and the NSE in the debt as well as capital market segments and also trades on the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange.
To venture into real estate development, GLFL Realities was incorporated in 1995. GLFL International was also established in the same year to set up branches in Singapore and Dubai. In 1995-96, the retail finance division started a scheme for financing commercial vehicles.
During the year 2004-05, the Scheme of Compromise and Arrangement to discharge the liability of the banks was sanctioned by the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat. The Company released payment as per the Court order. As per the Court's order, the income received pertaining to assigned assets after July, 2004 was transferred to the Consortium of Banks. Subsequent to the Court's order, GLFL recovered Rs.344 lacs till date from the charged assets and deposited with the member banks. As a result of this, the Company had no external debts at the end of the year.
During the year 2018-19, three wholly owned subsidiary companies, GLFL Housing Finance Ltd., GLFL Securities Ltd and GLFL International Ltd. were amalgamated with the Company through the Scheme of Amalgamation effective from 1st April, 2017. As per the Scheme, all the business undertakings of three subsidiary Companies got transferred in the Holding Company.