Centurion eyes more bank buys

Centurion Bank of Punjab, a private bank controlled by the Rana Talwar-promoted Sabre Capital, is planning to buy more domestic banks.

Centurion has already absorbed Bank of Punjab, a new generation private bank with itself and is in the merging Lord Krishna Bank, a south-based old private bank.

"We are not going to jump on every opportunity. It has to have a strategic fit. It is not just growth in number of branch, but geographic coverage and scale are also is important considerations," Talwar, who also is chairman of bank, told reporters on the sidelines of a capital markets seminar organised by the Ficci here today.

Centurion has shown 30-40 per cent growth in business in the last few quarters. Now, it has 400 branches and he hinted that buying small banks will not make sense.

The private bank looks to increase its business volume from existing Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 1,00,000 crore in next 3-5 years, he added.