The Hindu : Business : BoB to strengthen overseas presence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

Business

Business

BoB to strengthen overseas presence

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, FEB.17. Bank of Baroda plans to strengthen its global presence by opening more offices, including joint ventures with other Indian banks. The bank's Executive Director, K. Ramakrishnan, told presspersons here today that 13 more overseas offices/joint ventures were planned. Of these, the second office in Bangkok, Thailand, would be opened before March. The bank had applied for licence for its first office in Singapore. It already had 65 offices in East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Belgium, the U.S. and the U.K.

The other areas targeted were Houston in the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobaggo in the Carribean Islands. As for joint ventures, it would look for ones on the lines of the Indo-Zambia Bank, a collaborative effort of the Government of Zambia, BoB, Central Bank of India and the Bank of India.

Besides the overseas plans, he hinted at mergers in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

"We are looking for banks with a strong regional presence." Using the term geographical synergy instead of merger, Mr. Ramakrishnan, said with BoB's stature as a strong nationalised bank and the third largest public sector bank, it was in a position for other banks to merge with it and not the other way round. Without providing the slightest of clue as to which bank in the south the BoB had eyed, he ducked specific questions on this aspect saying that the process was on and it was not appropriate to divulge details now. "I cannot say anything conclusively now. A dialogue is on with other banks and things may materialise in three to six months."

On the overseas agenda, he said BoB's ventures were driven by the large presence and patronage of expatriate Indians. These did not, however, exclude the local community that could be covered with the help of joint ventures such as the Indo-Zambia Bank.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business