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It's booming time for BoB
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 28:
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It has paid off well for Bank of Baroda during the third quarter of fiscal 2006-07 and in the nine month period (April-December 2006) following its customer-centric policies.
The bank's net profit was up by 62.79 per cent at Rs 329.13 crore in the third quarter as against Rs 202.18 crore in the same period last year while the nine month period net profit was Rs 780.81 crore, up by 26.31 per cent as against Rs 618.19 crore in the last fiscal.
Interestingly, the bank's operating profit was at Rs 1828.46 crore in April-December, 2006 up by 20.98 per cent over the figures of Rs 1511.40 crore in the last financial year. The net interest income for the bank has grown by Rs 373.26 crore to Rs 2681.44 crore in the nine month period from Rs 2308.18 crore registering a rise of 16.17 per cent. Similarly, the net interest income for the third quarter increased by 18.12 per cent year-on-year from Rs 813.36 crore in the third quarter in fiscal 2006 to Rs 906.77 crore in the financial year 2007.
On a year-on-year basis, the bank's total business increased by 37.06 per cent to Rs 1,89,959 crore from Rs 1,38,600 crore from end December 2005 to end December 2006. While global deposits have increased by 31.03 per cent to Rs 1,12,298 crore on 31 December, 2006 from Rs85,706 crore on 31 December, 2005 and global advances increased by 46.82 per cent to Rs 77,661 crore from Rs 52,894 crore on 31 December, 2005.
Gross NPAs of the bank came down to Rs 2388.60 crore as on 31 December, 2006 from Rs 3,151.68 crore reflecting a reduction of 24.21 per cent. The capital adequacy ratio is at 12.24 pr cent despite a robust growth of 46.8 per cent in the bank's global loan book.
On technology-enabled business transformation, the CMD said that the bank has made rapid progress on technology front. By 31 December, 2006, the bank had completed CBS roll out in 724 branches. As of today, 805 branches are covered under the CBS. Of these, ten are overseas branches from the territories UAE, Oman and Singapore. The bank's ATM count has increased from 586 at end December 2005 to 722 at end December 2006. As of today, the bank has 732 ATMs and has introduced many innovative products like Baroda-Connect (internet banking) system for online payment of excise and services taxes and system for rapid funds transfer to India during the last few months.
Regarding overseas business, the bank has presence in 21 countries with 60 overseas offices and one joint venture. The bnk is pursuing a very ambitious overseas expansion plan. During the quarter, the bank received approval from RBI for opening 8 more foreign offices at Qatar, Bahrain, Ghana, Johannesburg, London and representative offices in Hangzhou and Australia and for upgrading the existing representative offices in Guangzhou to a full-fledged branch.
During the current financial year, the bank intends to open offices in six more countries in Trinidad, Tobago, Canada, Australia, Ghana, Qatar and Bahrain. Furthermore, the bank is at the advanced stage of converting its existing subsidiary in Hong Kong into full-fledged branches in the country, which would enable it to undertake all types of business activities.
It would also upgrade its existing representative offices in Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur into full-fledged branch and a joint venture respectively. Besides this, the existing network in countries like South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Botswana will be extended by opening one more branch in these countries.
Bank of Baroda is only the Indian bank operating in UAE and it would be extending its network in the country by opening electronic banking service in Jebel Ali Free Zone, UAE and Mussaffa, Abu Dhabi to cater to its customers in much better fashion.