|
Allahabad Bank eyes acquisition in South |
|
|
|
Written by Ranganathan
|
|
Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
In its proposal to augment occurrence in the southern area, Allahabad Bank has regenerated its endeavor to get hold of a bank having fine branch network.
A.C. Mahajan, Chairman and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank stated, “Our attention has been drawn to two private banks on sale but the prices being quoted appear to be rather high.”
“We’re also open to acquiring a small public sector bank in the south and I'm sure that such an acquisition will help achieve synergy in operation for both the banks,” Mr. Mahajan added. On the other hand, there are very less small public sector banks in the south, and much of them would hinge upon the Government.
At present, Allahabad Bank has 87 branches in the four Southern States and the number would reach 94 by July 2007.
“We will apply for licenses for opening another 167 branches in 2007-08 and one-third of them in the south,” the CMD said.
About 75 per cent of Allahabad Bank’s branches are situated in a few States including UP, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and North-East.
In the meantime, for the past one and half months, the bank had been giving thrust to advances to agriculture and priority sector such that the fixed 18 per cent of the net credit went to agriculture and 40 per cent to priority sector comprehending SMEs, retail loans, SSIs and education and others.
|
