Bank of Baroda (BoB) is set to float a joint venture stock broking company and is at present talking to around four large stockbroking houses for a possible tie-up. The equity base of the company is likely to be around Rs 100 crore. |
The bank has also firmed up plans to open up a subsidiary in Tanzania, representative offices each in Malaysia and China and an offshore branch in Singapore. |
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It has also targeted a 50 per cent rise in net profit from overseas operations this year and is hopeful of achieving a Rs 300 crore figure. |
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Talking to newspersons today, chairman and managing director of BoB P S Shenoy said that the bank was in the process of talking to four large stock broking group and was likely to finalise a deal in the next few months. |
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"We are in the process of readying the business model of the company," he added. The bank was also likely to declare a dividend this year and it was comfortable on all measures stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India for being able to declare dividends on its own. |
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BoB had declared a 30 per cent interim dividend in December. This year the bank hopes to bring down its net non-performing assets (NPA) below two per cent and its gross NPA below six per cent. |
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"Our bank's net NPA was around 3.47 per cent in December 2003, which was likely to fall below three per cent in 2003-04," he said. |
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Shenoy said the bank has targeted a 20 per cent growth in balance sheet size as well as its net profit in 2004-05. |
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Talking about its subsidiary companies, Shenoy said, "The target was to expand all its subsidiaries like merchant banking, housing finance and asset management business." |
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It has also firmed up plans to sell non-life insurance products from one of the public sector insurance companies and has shelved the idea of opening selling life insurance products. |
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"We have as of now abandoned the idea of selling life insurance products, and would concentrate on the non-life segment. After we have gained considerable experience in selling non-life products should we plan to enter the life business," explained Shenoy. |
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