The Hindu Business Line : PNB keen on overseas acquisition

THE overseas acquisition bug seems to have bitten Indian public sector banks. After State Bank of India's recent overseas acquisition drive, it could now be the turn of Punjab National Bank to look beyond the borders to create a larger presence in the global market.

PNB is in the process of initiating internal discussions to plan and identify acquisition of banks overseas. "Overseas acquisition is in our minds. We would first hold internal discussions before we take concrete proposals to our board of directors," the Chairman and Managing Director, PNB, Mr S.C. Gupta told Business Line.

Mr Gupta said that his bank has not yet taken a firm view on the countries or even the regions in which it could be scouting for possible takeovers. "We are prepared to look at any bank that is good and has strong fundamentals," he said.

Inspired by SBI: PNB's desire to look overseas comes at a time when SBI has already taken over the fourth largest bank in Mauritius — Indian Ocean International Bank — earlier this year. The bank had subsequently said that it is in an advanced stage for further takeovers in the Asia and Africa regions.

In late August, the SBI Chairman, Mr A.K. Purwar, had said that SBI could be signing the new acquisition deals in the next six to eight weeks.

Expanding presence: PNB, though the second largest public sector banks in terms of assets, does not have a very large presence in the global arena and is itching to create a larger footprint overseas. "We would certainly like to increase our presence overseas. Other than acquisitions we are already in the process of increasing our branch presence in a few countries. We are also in the process of converting our London representative office into a subsidiary," Mr Gupta said.

He said that in the first phase of future branch expansion, PNB is looking at Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. "We would go ahead once we get RBI's clearance," Mr Gupta said.

PNB, at present, has five overseas outlets with one branch in Kabul and four representative offices in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Shanghai, London and Dubai.

Mr Gupta said that the bank is taking necessary steps for acquiring the nod from the UK regulators for converting the representative office into a subsidiary. "We have appointed outside experts who would process our application with the UK regulators," Mr Gupta said.

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PNB keen on overseas acquisition

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