The Hindu Business Line : Bank of Maharashtra net rises 14% on income growth

Pune, May 14 Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) is on the lookout for inorganic growth through acquisitions and also has plans to set up an overseas branch in collaboration with an Indian partner to facilitate remittances.

For the fiscal year ended March 2009, the bank posted a net profit of Rs 375.17 crore, a rise of 14.24 per cent year on year, while the total income through its three main business segments — treasury operations, corporate and retail banking — grew 27.90 per cent to Rs 4791.58 crore in the same period.

Total business stood at Rs 87,072 crore, an increase of 21.68 per cent over FY 08.

Mr Allen C.A. Pereira, Chairman and Managing Director, said the results were as per projections and the bank is targeting total business of Rs 100,000 crore during the current financial year.

Acquisitions

On inorganic growth, Mr Pereira said, “We are on the look out-for acquisitions, but we expect that to happen only next year.” The bank is also planning to open its first first overseas branch in an area where there is an Indian Diaspora. “We want to open a medium-size branch, preferably jointly with another nationalised bank, either in West Asia , South-East Asia or Africa,” he said adding that this would also happen in a year’s time and that the process of growing the NRI portfolio was underway.

On the domestic front, BoM has plans to reach out to un-banked villages in the rural areas and is hiring 75 agriculture officers to push rural credit and marketing. It expects to open 100 new branches across India this year, licences for 26 of which were been procured last year. “We will apply for 75-80 new licenses this year,” Mr Pereira said.

hiring

The bank is recruiting 500 specialists, including chartered accountants and finance professionals to increase the foreign exchange, credit and deposit businesses. It has also tied up with 10 mutual funds and its online trading facility is being launched shortly. The other focus areas are insurance and fee-based government business.

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