The Hindu Business Line : IOB plans to buy small branch

Mumbai, Oct. 29 Indian Overseas Bank plans to acquire a small bank of branch strength of about 25-30 by March 08. “We are waiting for approvals from the Reserve Bank of India,” said Mr S. A. Bhat, its Chairman and Managing Director.

Though Mr Bhat refused to divulge further details about the bank, he said that it was neither a nationalised bank nor a bank from south India. Explaining the reason behind the acquisition, Mr Bhat said that it would increase the bank’s presence in areas where it currently does not have a marked presence.

Net up 28%

Backed by a good fee based income resulting from better recovery from written off accounts, Indian Overseas Bank has posted a net profit of 27.95 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 319.70 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, against Rs 249.85 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The other income went up by about 81 per cent at Rs 174.46 crore (Rs 96.40 crore). “There has been a sharp increase in our advances and our slippages in the first six months have been lesser as compared to our recovery," said Mr Bhat.

The advances were at Rs 51,346 crore with corporate contributing to 17-18 per cent and agriculture at 18 per centThe net interest income went up by 3.31 per cent at Rs 632.14 crore (Rs 611.91 crore).

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