Harley-Davidson to offer financial services in India

Harley-Davidson, the iconic American bike manufacturer on Saturday announced that it will roll out financial services in India over the next two months providing loans to customers. The company's Indian arm is in the final rounds of negotiations with bankers and will launch the services in the next few days. 

At present, the company's customers can obtain loan facilities from different banks, where the firm has a tie-up with HDFC Bank and Yes Bank, Press Trust of India reported.

"By this calender year, we will be launching our financial services. It will be known as Harley Davidson Financial Services. Of our total sales, 50-60 percent of bikes go through finances. So, it is a huge number. We want to offer customised loans to people so that they can buy our products at their  convenience," Vikram Pawah, Harley-Davidson India Managing Director was quoted as saying by the agency. 

The company's MD further said that the market conditions (which was a little slow in the last couple of months) is expected to improve again since the GST Bill came into effect. "Although in the last few months, sales were marginally down, we will close the year on a positive note. We hope to achieve high single-digit growth in India," he added.

Leisure biking is still in the beginning stages in India and Harley-Davidson plans to invest in the country and build its market. Talking about the company's future plans Pawah said "the future is in Tier-II towns and the next phase of growth will happen in such smaller places. We will be rapidly expanding in other Tier-II cities as well in coming months."

In India, the US-based company has showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata, the company. Additionally, the company has showrooms in other smaller towns such as Lucknow, Nagpur, Surat, Indore, Coimbatore, Ludhiana and Calicut, among others.