BoI
awaits RBI nod for Tier-II funds
BANKING BUREAU HYDERABAD,
MAY 5 : The state-owned Bank of India (BoI) has sought permission from the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to raise $250 million as Tier-II capital from the overseas
market to fund expanding global operations. The
bank, according to its chairman and managing director M Balachandran, would use
the proceeds to expand and increase its international presence and was proposing
to open offices in Beijing, Doha, Johannesburg and Antwerp. It
also plans to expand operations in Indonesia and set up a subsidiary in Tanzania. Currently,
BoI has 23 overseas branches which include the UK (6), Kenya (4), the USA (2),
Japan (2), Hong Kong (2), France (1), Singapore (1), China (1), Indonesia (1),
Channel Islands (1), Vietnam (1) and Cayman Islands (1). Mr
Balachandran said BoI was expecting to get the RBI nod to raise about $250 million
from the overseas markets shortly. The
bank, he added, had recently raised the first tranche of the $250 million under
the medium-term note (MTN) programme of the $ 1 billion for its international
operations. The issue, he said, was rated Baa3 by Moody's and BB(plus) by Standard
and Poor's on par with sovereign rating.Asked
about the profitability of the overseas operations, Mr Balachandran said, "About
one-fifth of the bank business is generated from overseas. It
also accounts for almost same proportion of profits." The
century-old bank has a network of 2,610 branches and a workforce of 43,000 employees. Top |
