BoB, UTI MF tie up for distribution of products

Mumbai, Mar 1 (UNI) UTI Mutual Fund (MF) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) today entered into a strategic tie-up for distribution of UTI MF schemes at 100 designated bank brnahces including overseas outlets.

Bank of Baroda, which is holding 25 per cent equity stake in the UTI assest management company (AMC), will extend the sale of the MF products to 100 more branches by March-end and thereafter will add 25 branches every month. Bank of Baroda has 2700 branches across the country.

BoB Chairman Dr A K Khandelwal on this occasion handed over Rs 11 crore worth of UTI MF schemes sold by the Bank on the first day today to UTI AMC Chairman U K Sinha.

Talking to newspersons after the function, Dr Khandelwal said that the Bank is emphasising more on fee-based income in the coming years and intends to become a financial hub for investors with an estimated 30 per cent growth in the next financial year. At present, the Bank has only 9 per cent fee-based income out of its total income.

Similarly, the Bank is aggressively looking for overseas expansion mainly in Gulf and Africa regions. It has nine branches in Gulf and about six branches in Africa.

It has already received apprroval from Reserve Bank to open branches in New Zealand, Canada, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mali in Africa.

The Bank will shortly commence its operations in Singapore while efforts are on to open branches in Canada and UAE in the current year of 2006.

Currently, it has 38 branches overseas branches contributing about 20 per cent of the total business turnover.

This contribution is likely to go up to 25 per cent in the coming fiscal year, Dr Khandelwal said.

UNI GC MAZ AG2005