The Hindu Business Line : ABN Amro looks forward to `subsidiary' status

(From left) Mr Raghu R. Malhotra, Vice President, South Asia, Master Card International; Mr Romesh Sobti, Executive Vice-President & Country Representative, ABN Amro Bank; and Mr Anil Bhandari, MD, International Travel House, at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday. -- Paul Noronha

Mumbai , June 8

ABN Amro sees 30 per cent growth in profits and assets in India in the current fiscal.

The bank, with a balance sheet size of Rs 10,000 crore, has loans worth Rs 6,500 crore, of which 50 per cent is retail and the rest wholesale.

"Retail has grown faster than wholesale in the past year. We expect the loans to grow by 30 per cent this year," said Mr Romesh Sobti, Executive Vice-President and Country Representative, on the sidelines of a news conference held on Tuesday to launch a `smart gold card'.

The bank has eight branch licences in hand and plans to ramp up its branch network to 24 by the year-end.

The bank plans to finalise accounts for the fiscal ended March 2004 before the end of the month.

It is awaiting the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) clearance for conversion into a subsidiary.

"We will be on par with any local private sector bank following conversion. We are ready to meet the priority sector norms and also to start rural branches,'' said Mr Sobti.

ABN Amro Bank was the first foreign bank to apply for conversion of its branch office into a subsidiary company incorporated in India.

Standard Chartered Bank, the country's largest foreign bank, recently expressed interest in the subsidiary model while Citibank desires more clarity on the implications of the process.

"We are awaiting administrative guidelines on the conversion process from the RBI,'' said Mr Sobti. "We will not need any extra capital for the conversion. We are over-capitalised."

He added: "We have retained our profits in the country for the past 15 years. As of now India contributes a minuscule number to the global figures but China and India are important in the management's mind space in terms of market potential.''

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank was 13 per cent as on March 2003, while net NPA ratio was 0.5 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent the previous year.

Today, the bank in partnership with ITC group company, International Travel House Ltd, launched the `ABN Amro Smart Gold Credit Card' with a `smart miles' airline reward program the points of which can be encashed for travel to any destination and hotel bookings.