1. The Aditya Birla group has readied a blueprint for India’s second-largest retail rollout with Rs 15,000 crs investment in over 6,000 stores in three years, a plan that is much larger than what was anticipated by industry analysts and peers. Among new groups entering retail, the Birla plan is next only to Reliance Industries’ Rs 25,000 crs corpus for 10,000 stores by 2011. Even as the Birlas are finalising their roadmap, the first 11 Reliance outlets opened to the public in Hyderabad.
2. The finance ministry is working out the modalities for sale of RBI ’s stake in SBI to the government. Based on SBI’s current market price, the government will have to fork out nearly Rs 350 bn to buy RBI’s stake in India’s largest commercial bank.
3. The average net NPA of listed PSBs has fallen to 1.11% at the end of September 2006 from 1.19% a quarter earlier and 1.33% at the end of 2005-06. Eleven PSBs now have less than 1% net NPAs compared with 10 on March 31, 2006. Of the 11 banks, Andhra Bank has lowest NPA of 0.10 % followed by PNB (0.18%), SBM (0.38%), Corporation Bank (0.48%) and OBC (0.50%).
4. About 150 employees of the erstwhile United Western Bank, which merged with IDBI Bank, have sought an early retirement under the one-month window available .
5. RBI deputy governor, Rakesh Mohan, has said corporates in the coming years would face greater competition for bank credit as banks explore emerging avenues such as retail, SMEs etc.
6. Allahabad Bank, IOB, Karnataka Bank, Dabur and Sompo Japan Insurance have executed a shareholders' agreement for the formation of a non-life joint venture insurance company. The company will be called Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Allahabad Bank will hold 30, while IOB and Karnataka Bank will own 19% and 15%, respectively. Dabur Investment Corporation will hold 10 %, while the Japanese partner will hold 26%.
7.South Indian Bank is all set to announce its tie-up with UTI MF for selling the latter's mutual fund products. It has already tied up with other mutual fund companies such as Franklin Templeton, Tata, Sundaram and Reliance over the last one month. To cross sell such products, the bank has roped in 50 marketing staff (on contract).
8. Priority sector advances by commercial banks are set to rise with the RBI shifting the base for arriving at the quantum of loan funds. The targets and sub-targets under priority sector lending would be linked to adjusted net bank credit (net bank credit plus investments made by banks in non-SLR bonds held in Held to Maturity category) or credit equivalent of off-balance sheet exposures, whichever is higher, as on March 31 of the previous year. Earlier, the 40% norm was linked to net bank credit only. By tagging non-SLR bonds and off-balance sheet exposures, banks may have to lend more to agriculture, micro credit, small scale and micro enterprises.
9. BOI and UBI have tied up with infrastructure financial services provider Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) for loan syndication. The two banks will also work together in international operations, to offer cash management services and in training. Under the arrangement with IDFC, both banks will facilitate joint identification, marketing, appraisal and underwriting of project finance. This will provide a single point contact for the borrowers. The two banks have set a target of Rs 11,500 crs for projects in the next 4-5 months and hope to handle 60 projects worth Rs 45,000 crs in the next one year.
2. The finance ministry is working out the modalities for sale of RBI ’s stake in SBI to the government. Based on SBI’s current market price, the government will have to fork out nearly Rs 350 bn to buy RBI’s stake in India’s largest commercial bank.
3. The average net NPA of listed PSBs has fallen to 1.11% at the end of September 2006 from 1.19% a quarter earlier and 1.33% at the end of 2005-06. Eleven PSBs now have less than 1% net NPAs compared with 10 on March 31, 2006. Of the 11 banks, Andhra Bank has lowest NPA of 0.10 % followed by PNB (0.18%), SBM (0.38%), Corporation Bank (0.48%) and OBC (0.50%).
4. About 150 employees of the erstwhile United Western Bank, which merged with IDBI Bank, have sought an early retirement under the one-month window available .
5. RBI deputy governor, Rakesh Mohan, has said corporates in the coming years would face greater competition for bank credit as banks explore emerging avenues such as retail, SMEs etc.
6. Allahabad Bank, IOB, Karnataka Bank, Dabur and Sompo Japan Insurance have executed a shareholders' agreement for the formation of a non-life joint venture insurance company. The company will be called Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Allahabad Bank will hold 30, while IOB and Karnataka Bank will own 19% and 15%, respectively. Dabur Investment Corporation will hold 10 %, while the Japanese partner will hold 26%.
7.South Indian Bank is all set to announce its tie-up with UTI MF for selling the latter's mutual fund products. It has already tied up with other mutual fund companies such as Franklin Templeton, Tata, Sundaram and Reliance over the last one month. To cross sell such products, the bank has roped in 50 marketing staff (on contract).
8. Priority sector advances by commercial banks are set to rise with the RBI shifting the base for arriving at the quantum of loan funds. The targets and sub-targets under priority sector lending would be linked to adjusted net bank credit (net bank credit plus investments made by banks in non-SLR bonds held in Held to Maturity category) or credit equivalent of off-balance sheet exposures, whichever is higher, as on March 31 of the previous year. Earlier, the 40% norm was linked to net bank credit only. By tagging non-SLR bonds and off-balance sheet exposures, banks may have to lend more to agriculture, micro credit, small scale and micro enterprises.
9. BOI and UBI have tied up with infrastructure financial services provider Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) for loan syndication. The two banks will also work together in international operations, to offer cash management services and in training. Under the arrangement with IDFC, both banks will facilitate joint identification, marketing, appraisal and underwriting of project finance. This will provide a single point contact for the borrowers. The two banks have set a target of Rs 11,500 crs for projects in the next 4-5 months and hope to handle 60 projects worth Rs 45,000 crs in the next one year.
