Date:01/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/07/01/stories/2005070103200600.htm

Back SBI aims to double overseas business

Our Bureau

SBI building in Chennai. The bank is celebrating its 200th Foundation Day on Friday.

Mumbai , June 30

THE State Bank of India (SBI) will target an income of around $100 million from its overseas operations, said Mr A. K. Purwar, Chairman, while addressing the bank's annual general meeting here on Thursday. In 2004-05, SBI's income from its overseas operations was $50 million.

Currently, the bank has 54 overseas offices in 28 countries. In the coming months, the bank plans to increase the number of overseas offices to around 75.

In February 2005, SBI picked up a 51 per cent stake in Mauritius-based Indian Ocean International Bank Ltd (IOIB). Furthering its acquisition plans, the bank is looking to acquire small and mid-sized banks in Asian and African countries, Mr Purwar said.

The road map for the bank includes organic and inorganic growth across the financial spectrum, he added. On SBI's bad loans, Mr Purwar said the bank hoped to bring the NPAs to below 2 per cent by March 2006. It will lend aggressively to agriculture, small and medium enterprises and retail consumers and also seek to tap opportunities in the services industry.

Responding to the query on SBI's performance against the global benchmark, he said the net interest margins (NIM) were 3.39 per cent for 2004-05, up from 3.04 per cent in 2003-04. The global benchmark is 3-3.5 per cent and SBI's NIM is likely to be consistently around 3.5 per cent, he added.

The transaction costs and non-performing costs would have to be brought down further.