The country’s third largest public sector lender, Bank of Baroda (BoB), today said it is open to overseas acquisition if a good opportunity comes across.
“If good opportunity is there, I will positively consider it,” Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya said when asked if the bank is open to acquisitions abroad.
“I am positive to it (acquisition) if there is a good opportunity in terms of valuation and strength,” he said.
The Mumbai-based bank has the largest overseas presence with about 76 offices in 26 countries. “We are a strong bank...It has the capability. If the opportunity present itself, we will also react to it,” he added.Despite the downturn, the bank’s overseas business contributed 23 per cent to net profit and 22.5 per cent to the bank’s total business.
On organic expansion, Mallya said the bank has recently opened two branches in Trinidad & Tobago and plans to open another four branches shortly.
In the next couple of months two branches in Uganda would come up, he said, adding Malaysian venture is also planned during the year. BoB also plans to open a branch in New Zealand by setting up a subsidiary, Mallya shared.
Elaborating on the Malaysian venture, he said the bank recently signed a joint venture agreement with its partners for setting up a banking subsidiary, which will be called the India BIA Bank (Malaysia) Bhd.
BoB is the lead partner with 40 per cent stake in the three-way joint venture, while Indian Overseas Bank and Andhra Bank hold 35 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. At present, BoB has a representative office in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
For the first quarter ended June 2009, BoB posted 85 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 685.38 crore compared with the same period a year ago.
Total income also rose to Rs 4,735.15 crore during the April-June quarter of current fiscal (2009-10) from Rs 3,806.37 crore of the corresponding period a year earlier.
During the quarter, it earned an interest income of Rs 4,032.11 crore, up over 22 per cent compared to Rs 3,293.82 crore in the comparable period last year.
