Mahabank revives float plan

After putting its initial public offer (IPO) on the backburner for over a year, Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has revived plans to tap the market with an equity issue of about Rs 240 crore. The bank's board is to meet next week to decide the modalities of the public issue.

The bank expects to tap the market before this December-end. Post-issue, the Central Government's equity in BoM is expected to come down by about 25-27 per cent to 75-73 per cent. The public issue is likely to be of Rs 10 each for cash at a premium of about Rs 14.

Last year all the eight independent directors on the board had opposed the bank's move to tap the capital market with an IPO at a par.

The directors "" Gyan Prakash, B M Bhandari, K S Oberoi, S S Desai, A K Pandit, S K Vashisht, G D Sharma, VR Utagi "" took the stand that it would be better to consolidate the balance sheet further and then go in for a premium public offering.

Net Profit of the Bank as of 31.03.2003 was up by 53 per cent to Rs. 222.02 crore as against Rs. 145.41 crore in the previous financial year.

It's total business crossed the figure of Rs 32,000 crore recording a growth of 15.67% over the previous year.

BoM has set a target to cross business level of around Rs 40,000 crore in 2003-04.

The bank plans to open 38 new branches at strategic business centers and install 256 ATMs.