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Canara Bank plans IPO by Oct-end

Our Bureau

MANGALORE, Aug. 10

CANARA Bank plans to go in for its maiden public issue by Diwali and is currently in the process of obtaining the mandatory SEBI, RBI and Government clearances required to go public.

Addressing his first press conference in Mangalore, the new Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. R. J. Kamath, outlining the bank's future plans said its long-term information technology plan envisages corporate connectivity with 200 branches, ``flexi-cen tralisation'' of the data base for the fully computerised branches and the setting up of a data warehouse for ``effective decision-making''.

Canbank Venture Capital Fund is also planning to launch its third fund _ CVCFL-III _ of Rs. 30 crores with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) as co-participant.

Plans are also underway to launch ``smart cards'' and to introduce a ``revolving credit facility'' for VISA card and Cancard holders. The number of Cancards ``in circulation'', according to recent estimates, is 61,760, with the aggregate turnover in the ``card business'' amounting to Rs. 459 crores.

Mr. Kamath also said during 1999-2000, the bank's domestic deposits grew by 16 per cent, advances by 21 per cent, and foreign business turnover by 35 per cent to touch Rs. 53,634 crores. Priority sector advances at Rs. 7,667 crores formed 42 per cent of net credit and advances to the infrastructure sector crossed the Rs. 1,000-crore mark. Advances to the small-scale sector also rose to Rs. 2,798 crores.

Disbursement under agricultural advances also reached an all-time high of Rs. 1,842 crores. Under the Kisan Credit Card scheme, the bank had issued 1.38 lakh cards involving an amount of Rs. 285 crores. On the whole, under the bank's Farmers' Green Card and Kisan Credit schemes, 2.32 lakh cards were issued during the previous year involving an amount of Rs. 465 crores.

The bank has also linked up 5,550 self-help groups to the organised credit system. A new Rural Development and Self-Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) was opened in Bhubaneswar taking the number of such institutes to 17 which together, during the pr evious year, trained 11,171 `unemployed rural youths'. The Canara Bank Platinum Jubilee Rural Development Trust also provided training to more that 3,000 `unemployed rural youths' under 130 self-employment programmes and achieved a `settlement rate' of 6 0 per cent.