The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) will open 8 more branches, taking its total tally to 20 in south India, during the current financial year. |
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, K M Nair, zonal in-charge (south), Sidbi, said the first among the new branches would be opened at Kozhikode in Kerala. |
Stating that the bank, the principal financial institution for financing the SME sector, was expecting a minimum of 20 per cent growth in advances portfolio in the current fiscal, he said it would expand the credit portfolio to around Rs 7,000 crore by this fiscal-end. |
"As against our predicted growth of 20 per cent, we witnessed a 30-40 per cent growth during the last financial year. This was due to some favourable factors. We are not targeting a very high growth rate this year, but will maintain the 20 per cent growth," he said. |
Sidbi has planned to support non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in the current fiscal and will arrange working capital for SMEs through its partner banks. |
It has signed an MoU with Sundaram Finance Limited as part of a channel arrangement to reach out to the remote areas of south India. |