Bank of Maharashtra to raise Rs 150 cr by March

Bank aims to disburse Rs 1,000 cr farm credit by fiscal end

Bank of Maharashtra will raise Rs 150 crore from the bond market by March end to step up credit to agriculture and infrastructure sectors.

The bank aims to disburse Rs 1,000 crore farm credit by the end of this fiscal and another Rs 1,000 crore loan to infrastructure sector in the next six months.

"We will raise Rs 150 crore for Tier-II capital during next quarter," Bank of Maharashtra chairman S C Basu said.

The bank, in its initial public offering (IPO) in February this year, had raised Rs 130 crore, which brought down the government's holding in the bank to 76.77 per cent from 100 per cent.

Prior to the IPO, the state-owned banks' paid-up capital was Rs 330.52 crore, which subsequently rose to Rs 430.52 crore in February.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at 12.48 per cent as of September end this fiscal compared with 12.61 per cent in the year ago period.

On farm lending, Basu said: "We have provided Rs 600 crore to the agriculture sector till now, which will go up to Rs 1,000 crore by the end of this fiscal."

Another sector that has lured the bank is infrastructure sector.

"We have plans to lend Rs 1,000 crore for infrastructure development in the next six months," he said.

The net non-performing assets against net advances of the bank stood at 2.89 per cent in September this fiscal as against 5.78 during the corresponding period in 2003-04.