Incorporated in Nov.'89, Times Guaranty Ltd., formerly known as Times Guaranty Financials (TGFL) was promoted by Bennett Coleman and Company, the proprietors of the Times of India group of publications. The company, now renamed Times Guaranty, started with retail and corporate lending, merchant banking and money market related activities. In Apr.'91, the company diversified into portfolio management services. In 1993, the company became an active player on the OTCEI. During this time, TGL started investments and trading in secondary market, on its own portfolio. The company is authorised by SEBI as a category-I merchant banker and has also acquired membership of Over-The-Counter Exchange of India. TGL went public in Aug.'94, at a premium of Rs 60, to augment resources to meet the needs of its planned growth. The company restructured its finances as much as its organisation and moved further away from fund based activities. The company has also endeavoured to provide manufacturing companies with effective techniques to manage production systems without losing sight of the financial and economic rationale for its existence. Based on an organizational assessment in 1995, the company made a conscious move to exit from all fund based activities including leasing and hire-purchase. As part of this, the company has discontinued the public fixed deposit scheme from the year 1997 . Subsequently the company approached RBI for exiting from the non-banking finance(NBFC) business.