India's largest private lender ICICI Bank today said it would add new 1,500 branches in the next three years, taking the total to 4,000, and focus on financing infrastructure projects.
"We had undertaken the major strategic initiative of the merger of Bank of Rajasthan with ICICI Bank during fiscal 2011. With this merger, we have created a combined network of over 2,500 branches, substantially expanding our presence not only in Rajasthan but also in other major centres in India," said ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar.
Talking to PTI after the Annual General Meeting of the lender here, she said following receipt of regulatory approvals for the merger in August 2010, we moved quickly to integrate the Bank of Rajasthan with ICICI Bank.
"We have been able to achieve integration of human resources and various aspects of operations seamlessly in a short span of time. We believe this provides us a powerful platform for pursuing our objective of sustained profitable growth in the coming years."
Kochhar said, "Now there is no proposal of merger of any bank with ICICI Bank."
About the expansion plans, she said the bank did not open any new branch in FY11 as it acquired Bank of Rajasthan "that itself meant addition of 500 branches".
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However, over the next three years, the bank plans to open 1,500 more branches, the managing director said.
"Our strategy for fiscal 2010-11 was to boost growth by capitalising on emerging opportunities in the Indian economy, while maintaining and enhancing the more efficient balance sheet structure that we achieved in 2009-10," she stated.
"In FY11, we successfully executed this strategy, achieving a robust growth in our loan portfolio, improving profitability with continued focus on key operating parameters," Kochhar maintained.
ICICI Bank's total advances grew by 19.4% in fiscal 2010-11. This was driven mainly by strong growth in domestic corporate advances, as well as in the lending to Indian companies from our international branches, she said.
The retail portfolio also stabilised and grew in the second half of the year after several quarters of decline, she pointed out.
"We are executing a focused financial inclusion plan by leveraging information and communication technology and the enabling regulatory framework to provide basic banking services to the unbanked," the ICICI Bank CEO stated.
Through the ICICI Foundation, we are seeking to improve the quality of school education and primary healthcare in a number of states, thereby playing our role in the strengthening of the soft infrastructure that is critical to long term sustainable growth of our country."
ICICI Bank, which was quite aggressive on personal loans till 2008, has shifted focus and is concentrating on corporate sector financing as one of the key areas for sustainable growth, she said.
With the private sector expected to play a major role in infrastructure financing, projected at $1 trillion in the next 5-6 years, ICICI Bank would remain active in areas like roads and power, said Kochhar.
"I do feel ICICI Bank will play a major role in infrastructure project finance. This is an area of big focus," she added.