Date:12/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/12/stories/2005011202240600.htm

Back Andhra Bank to open 40 more branches by March, exhaust licences

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Jan. 11

ANDHRA Bank has decided to aggressively pursue organic growth by rapidly expanding its branch network. The bank plans new branches by using up all its pending 40 licences within the current fiscal itself.

"We are holding licences for 40 new branches at this point. I hope to make all the 40 branches functional within March 2005," the Chairman and Managing Director, Andhra Bank, Mr T.S. Narayansami, told Business Line.

He said that the new branches would be spread all across the country thereby giving Andhra Bank a more national look. "Today, we have a large concentration of branches in Andhra Pradesh. We want to gradually have a more pan-India presence. We would like to reach out to other places to make ourselves a truly national bank," Mr Narayansami said, while on a recent visit to Delhi to hand over the bank's contribution of Rs 2 crore to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund to help tsunami victims.

On mergers and acquisitions, Mr Narayansami said that the bank would like to wait and watch the developments during the next few months.

"We would like to wait and watch how one merger goes though before taking a decision," he said.

Mr Narayansami said even though mergers would be in the interest of the banks, a lot of issues need to be resolved. "Size will give you better economies of operation. However, there must be some synergies. Mergers should not be gone through only to attain greater geographical reach," he said.

He said that among the issues that needed to be addressed are IT compatibility, staff and cultural integration, and rationalisation of branches. "We have to see what the mutual strengths and weaknesses of the merging banks are," he added.

On the operational front, the Andhra Bank chief said that he hoped to attain a business of Rs 40,000 crore by March 2005 against Rs 36,000 crore at the end of the previous fiscal. "Our focus is to increase interest income on core operations and better fee-based income. We are also concentrating on an effective resources and deployment mix to step up our net interest margin," he said.