Promoted by N Mahalingam in 1955 as The Pollachi Credit Society Pvt Ltd, the name was changed to Sakthi Finance (SFL) in 1967. N Mahalingam is the chairman, and M Balasubramaniam is the managing director.SFL is in the business of mobilising deposits, hire-purchase financing and leasing of vehicles, machinery, mortgage financing, renting out safe deposit lockers, etc. In Apr.93, it came out with a rights issue of 32.1 lac equity shares (premium : Rs 20), aggregating Rs 9.63 cr. The issue was to partly meet the Rs 66 cr required for deployment in hire-purchase and leasing.SFL has drawn out plans to increase deployment further. It will lay more emphasis on truck finance as demand for commercial vehicles is showing an upward trend.SFL is a category-I merchant banker and has received a licence from SEBI in 1994. Hire-purchase is the companys principal line of business.The total deposits with the company as on 31.03.2001 stood at Rs.115.38 crores as against Rs.126..34 crores in the previous year.