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L.N. Revathy

Coimbatore, Nov. 22

Thrissur-headquartered Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd is contemplating the rights issue route to enhance its capital base.

While confirming this information, the bank’s Managing Director and CEO, Mr P.S. Prasad, maintained that the board has in-principle agreed for the rights issue, but the timing, size and price was being worked out.

Asked about the likely time span, he said: “We want to complete the process by the close of this fiscal.”

He was here in connection with the shifting of the main branch here to a more spacious, air-conditioned building. Without elaborating on the proposed issue, he said branch expansion plans would be decided after increasing the capital.

With 181 branches spread across eight States, Dhanalakshmi Bank, Mr Prasad admitted, was more prominent in the South. According to him, it has established a niche in the area of micro-finance in Kerala. “We have established a strong presence in Kollam, Ernakulam and Palghat belt.”

Claiming to be the principal banker for temples, churches and mosque, he said ‘over 1,800 temple accounts are with us. We are bankers for both - the Travancore Devoswom Board, Sabarimala and the Guruvayoor temple,” he added.

Stating that banks generally detested accepting cash and coins and even charged customers for cash acceptance, he said his bank’s staff were trained on cash management services.

“We have bigplans for traders and SMEs,” he said but did not elaborate further. The bank is planning a co-branded credit card. It is targeting to double its business volume from Rs 5,016 crore at present to Rs 10,000 crore by March 2009.

Its Chairman, Mr A.D. Navaneethan, said the bank would aim to increase its capital fund to Rs 500 crore-plus in a span of three years.

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