ING Vysya Bank plans rights issue

ING Vysya Bank is planning to raise funds through rights issue. The bank board will meet on December 15 to consider various options of raising capital including issue of shares on rights basis said the bank in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

On the BSE today, the bank scrip ended the day at Rs 378.15 up 2.16 per cent against its previous close of Rs 370.10. For the year ended March 2004, the bank recorded profit before provisions and taxes of Rs 261.80 crore.

Even in a declining interest rate regime, the bank was able to improve interest spread by 12.52 per cent to Rs 244.10 crore. While the profit on the sale of investments was down by Rs 22.12 crore on the previous year and reached Rs 184.78 crore, other income has increased by 20.80 per cent to Rs 160.28 crore.

The increase in operating expenses was limited to 3.65 per cent.

Major increase in operating expense is IT related. The total assets of the bank, for the fiscal year under review, increased to Rs 13,198.34 crore from Rs 11,458.82 crore recording a growth rate of 15.18 per cent.

In the current year, notwithstanding the introduction of the 90 day norm, and consequential to a successful recovery strategy, the bank has been able to limit the provisions for non-performing assets and standard assets to Rs 49.97 crore net (compared with Rs.104.28 crore of the previous year).

The result is that the bank's net non-performing assets has been reduced to Rs 183.36 crore (on 90 day basis) from Rs 199.14 crore (180 day basis).