Mahesh coop declares 15% dividend

Hyderabad-based AP Mahesh Cooperative Urban Bank Limited has declared a dividend of 15 per cent to its shareholders for the financial year 2004-05. The multi-state scheduled coop bank is planning to increase advances to Rs 200 crore by fiscal 2006 through aggressive marketing efforts.

The bank's chairman, Ramesh Kumar Bung, while addressing the shareholders at its 29th annual general meeting, said that the aggregate deposits of the bank stand at Rs 352 crore with advances being Rs 158 crore as on September 27, 2005.

For the year 2004-05, the bank registered a net profit of Rs 4 crore and the bank continues to be a zero per cent net NPA bank. The bank's owned funds are over Rs 100 crore.

To augment fee based income, the bank has started marketing and distributing life insurance products of Max New York Life Insurance Co Ltd. Mahesh Bank is the first bank in Andhra Pradesh to enter into bancassurance partnership.

The bank also plans to adopt modern technology for networking all its branches, a press release said.