The Hindu Business Line : Indbank Merchant on expansion mode

Hyderabad, Aug. 28 Indbank Merchant Banking Services Ltd, an arm of Indian Bank, plans to go solo in in business and expects to double its branches to 18 this year. “We have turned around and are not looking for partners now. In the first quarter of the fiscal, we made Rs 16 crore profit while the full year profit for last fiscal was at Rs 21 crore,” Mr A Subramanian, Chairman, Indbank Merchant Banking Services Ltd, told newspersons after opening of Indbank’s branch here on Tuesday.

It had explored partnership option when it ran into rough weather a couple of years ago. “But now we are on the profit mode and our fundamental will be strengthened further.” .

The broking firm, which had earlier announced its plans to foray into derivatives trade, would be hiring experts in the field. “We will be entering derivatives trade soon. We are imparting training to our employees in the field and also planning to appoint a few experts over next three months.”.

Mr S Subramanian said the bank would add nine more branches in the fiscal year to its existing nine branches. Offices would be opened at Pondicherry, Baroda, Kolkata, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Pune, Jaipur, Indore and Kochi. “In addition, we will be setting up brokerage terminals in select centers.”