Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has raised $75 million (around Rs 345 crore) from Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank as a line of credit. The money will be used to expand the bank’s overseas credit portfolio.
Besides, with a capital of $35-$37 million (around Rs 161 crore), IOB is also planning to upgrade its offices in China and Dubai.
Chairman and Managing Director M Narendra, who took over on Monday, said the bank had raised syndicate loans to the tune of $75 million from Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank. The money will be used by its overseas offices for lending to Indian companies.
“The money will be disbursed through the Hong Kong and Singapore branches, which happen to be the bank’s flagship branches,” he said.
“The money will improve the bank’s overseas lending in a big way,” added Nupur Mitra, executive director, IOB. As on September 30, the bank’s overseas asset size was $2,707 million, she added. Deposits stood at $876 million and gross credit at $1,895.10 million.
The bank has operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Dubai and Colombo.
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“We are planning to upgrade our China and Dubai representative offices to a full fledged bank,” she added.
The China branch will attract a capital of $25 million (Rs 115 crore) and $10 million (around Rs 46 crore) will be required to set up a branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre. For a general branch anywhere else in Dubai, the cost would be $12 million, added Mitra.
“China offers huge scope as a large number of Indian companies have set base there,” she said.
Narendra said the bank’s total business grew to Rs 2.06 lakh crore from Rs 1.87 lakh crore last year and added it had set a target of Rs 2.50 lakh crore by the end of the current financial year.
Narendra said non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 3,326 crore. The bank had set a target of recovering Rs 1,300 crore by March 31, 2011, he added. Of this, Rs 526.95 crore had already been recovered, he said.