Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 |
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Money & Banking
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Financial Performance Corporate Results - Public Sector Banks Q3 net up 115 pc — Allahabad Bank to invest Rs 50 lakh in UTI's ARC Our Bureau
Mr O.N. Singh
Kolkata , Jan. 14 ALLAHABAD Bank will acquire 10 per cent equity stake in the asset reconstruction company being floated by Unit Trust of India. "We will invest Rs 50 lakh in UTI's ARC, which will have an equity base of Rs 5 crore," said Mr O.N. Singh, CMD of Allahabad Bank here on Wednesday. "The ARC is going to be launched soon, most probably by the month-end," he added. "We are looking at the ARC as a profit-centre, and if opportunities arise, we might even consider investing more into it," he said. He made it clear that he had no idea of other shareholders in the ARC. "We only know that UTI will be holding 51 per cent and Bank of India another 15 per cent or so," he observed. Allahabad Bank, the CMD said, would soon sign a MoU with UTI Mutual Fund to sell its products through its various branches, mostly those located in metros, urban and semi-urban areas. This might call for deployment of staff, he said. Earlier, the bank's board of directors approved a proposal to open an offshore business unit at Noida, where a special economic zone (SEZ) was going to be set up. While the type of activities to be set up at Noida was yet to be firmed up, garments and textiles, he felt, might receive priority. The branch, to be set up over the next three months, would cater mainly to non-resident Indians and foreigners. Kolkata could be the location for the bank's next overseas banking unit provided there was a SEZ throwing up opportunities, he said. The retail business, Mr Singh indicated, would continue to receive a good deal of attention. Exciting days lay ahead with regard to marketing of retail products. Housing finance for the rural sector held out promise. He was of the view that rural lending as a whole, which was nothing but retail banking with much higher average yield, should receive due importance. Allahabad Bank, with 962 rural branches, could play an important role in this regard, he said. Briefing newspersons about the bank's performance in the third quarter ending December 2003, the CMD said net profit amounted to Rs 98.36 crore compared with Rs 45.75 crore in the same period of the previous year, thus recording 115 per cent growth. Operating profit at Rs 235.42 crore (Rs 177.92 crore) showed a jump of 32.32 per cent. Cumulatively, the operating profit in the first nine months at Rs 556.08 crore compared with Rs 391.94 crore previously showed a growth of 41.88 per cent; net profit at Rs 242.24 crore (Rs 110.26 crore) grew by 119.70 per cent.
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