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Peerless, once a small savings company, is trying to script a turnaround after years of stagnation and pressure on profitability. The Kolkata-based family-owned business conglomerate is expanding in healthcare and real estate, besides strengthening the treasury operation, while it plans to sell its financial product distribution subsidiary, a “low-scale” business in the new scheme of things.The group is in the process of investing about Rs 1,100 crore over three years in expanding its footprint in hospital business and real estate.It has also taken its hospital business outside West Bengal for the first time, through an acquisition of a 250-bed facility in Guwahati for Rs 150 crore. Last year, it bought out a smaller 120-bed hospital in Barasat near Kolkata. Besides, it is spending Rs 450 crore to set up a cancer wing -- Sunil Kanti Roy Institute of Oncology Services -- of its first hospital in the memory of its former managing director.“The investments will accelerate profit growth after the build-up phase is over,” said Jayanta Roy, son of SK Roy and now managing director of Peerless General Finance & Investment Company (PGFI), the holding entity of the group.Peerless saw an 11% drop in consolidated revenue to Rs 675 in 2024-25 from Rs 758 crore in the preceding financial year. The group’s profit fell 54% to Rs 127 crore from Rs 274 crore during this period. The profit was even below the Rs 139 crore that it recorded in 2020-21 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.PGFI, which began financial services distribution after it was barred from mobilising public deposits in 2011, has identified Darsh Advisory Pvt Ltd for selling the 100% owned Peerless Financial Products Distribution for about Rs 23 crore.The group’s main focus will revolve around healthcare, hotel and real estate, while PGFI will carry out the treasury operation for the group companies.“We are making our treasury operations more contemporary. We were conservative even two years back, investing 20% in equities and 80% in debt. Today we have a more balanced investment strategy, with nearly 47:53 breakup,” said chairman Partha Sarathi Bhattacharya.PGFI's treasury returns, however, got impacted due to volatile markets, with its standalone revenue falling 31% to Rs 238 crore in 2024-25, as against Rs 345 crore in the preceding fiscal. Profit was lower too, at Rs 138 crore, against Rs 224 crore.Meanwhile, PGFI is in the process of monetising its existing land bank. It recently launched its first independent real estate development project in Rajarhat, targeting the affluent.To be sure, the group’s transformation journey started sometime in 2021-22, when it built a new team and invited Bhattacharya, the former Coal India chairman and Haldia Petrochem director, to guide the team.The group, which saw its profit before tax falling at a compound annual rate of 11% between 2013-14 and 2018-19, did better between 2021-22 and 2024-25, with a 12% annual growth, said Supriyo Sinha, director PGFI and a key strategist.“The current investments will have significant funding costs and depreciation, thereby impacting near-term profits, but will enable future growth,” he said. Incorporated in 1932 as The Peerless Insurance Co Ltd by Radhashyam Roy, the company started mobilising small savings in 1956. The Reserve Bank of India classified it as a residuary non-banking company in 1987 when the central bank established the framework for regulating non-bank mobilisers of public deposits like Peerless.“Efforts in scaling up size and impact have been initiated across the company’s activities as well as group entities in a focused drive towards business transformation in many spheres,” Bhattacharyya said in the company’s latest annual report.

The Indian rupee hit a record low on Tuesday, hurt by lingering concerns over the impact of steep U.S. tariffs and a sharp jump in H-1B visa fees, though likely central bank intervention helped limit the losses. The currency slid to 88.7975 per dollar before closing at 88.7550, down 0.5% on the day in its steepest drop in nearly a month. The rupee has fallen more than 3.5% this year, making it one of the region's worst performers. Its latest slide followed a sharp hike in H-1B visa fees that threatens profits in India's IT sector, adding to pressure from 50% U.S. tariffs on Indian goods, the highest in Asia. Economists at HSBC estimate that the 5.4 million Indians in the U.S. cumulatively send back about $33 billion in remittances to the country each year. There are about 80,000 new visa applicants each year, and if they were to not get entry, remittance inflows could fall by about $500 million, they said in a Tuesday note. "The risk is that more restrictions on service exports follow, and the lowering of the 50% tariff takes longer than markets are factoring in." India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50, were little changed on the day but IT stocks declined 0.7%, adding to an 18% fall over the year so far even as the broader stock gauge has risen 6.5%. On Tuesday, the central bank likely stepped in to support the rupee but did not appear inclined to defend a specific level, traders said, adding that its measured approach suggests it may allow a gradual weakening of the currency. "The rupee appears to be reflecting the pressure on India's external sector even as domestic cues, such as recent tax cuts and strong business activity data, offer a positive impulse, said Dilip Parmar," a foreign exchange research analyst at HDFC Securities. The local unit was consistently cited as a currency with a weaker outlook in a September emerging market sentiment survey conducted by HSBC. "Brazil and India, which were highlighted as the top economies in the previous survey, lost prominence after both were targeted with a 50% tariff rate," the survey said. Despite persistent headwinds facing the currency, market expectations for sharp swings remain subdued due to the increased participation of companies in the options market and subdued offshore demand for options that bet on its fall.