Dhanlakshmi Bank to open branches in UP, Rajasthan

Kochi, Jun 17 (UNI) Kerala's private sector Dhanlakshmi Bank is planning to open branches in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and has sought licence from the RBI for this, Bank's Executive Director V S R Murthy said today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Murthy said the bank had recorded an improvement in its operations during 2005-06 to post a net profit of Rs 9.51 crore from a net loss of Rs 21.60 crore during the previous year.

The Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of seven per cent for the year.

The bank, which had a total business of Rs 4223 crore in 2005-06, was targeting a business of Rs 6,000 crore for this fiscal -- Rs 3,500 crore in deposits and Rs 2,500 crore in advances.

Eighty per cent of its branches (145) were brought under core banking solution and this will be increased to 95 per cent this year.

The bank planned to open 34 new branches this year, including in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where it had no presence so far. The bank presently has branches in eight states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

It was also planning to increase the number of agents in the Gulf countries to service the NRI customers, whose deposits constitued about 7.5 per cent of the total deposits. Identifying this as a thrust area, Mr Murthy said the bank was targeting to increase the NRI deposits to 15 per cent.

Despite being a private sector bank, it had given almost Rs 100 crore in micro-credits, constituting 11.5 per cent of the total loan disbursals. This year the bank will emphasise on giving loans to micro-entrepreneurs, he added.

UNI ARC GM PAG1601