United Bank plans IPO

United Bank of India, in an effort to restructure its capital base, plans to go for an initial public offering (IPO) of an undisclosed amount soon.

The issue is aimed at converting Rs 1,232 crore of its equity base of Rs 1,532 crore into preferential share and perpetual bond. The bank has already submitted its proposal to the Reserve Bank of India.

The bank has also targeted business worth Rs 55,000 crore in the current financial year, up 23 per cent over last year. It plans to open 50 branches this year in north and central India.

Speaking at a felicitation function of top achievers of the bank's 'Mission one million' programme, P K Gupta, chairman and managing director, spoke about the deposit mobilisation of the bank to the tune of Rs 560 crore in July this year compared with last year's figure of Rs 360 crore.

RBI had allowed the bank to write off bad debt amounting to Rs 271.44 crore against capital. This enabled the bank to pay dividend after a gap of 14 years.

United Bank employees across the country have managed to meet the target of getting more than a million Indian citizens to open savings accounts with the bank.

This programme enabled the bank to increase the average number of accounts opened with bank from 900 to 4,000 per month, sometimes even going up to 8,000, said Gupta.

By July, the bank had already managed to open 10,04,175 fresh accounts through its branch network.

"More than 22 per cent of such account holders belong to that strata of society for whom financial inclusion was conceptualised," said Gupta.