Bank of Baroda to double its size by next year

Mumbai, Mar 30 (UNI) In its efforts to become the No one public sector bank in the country, Bank of Baroda (BoB) has prepared a business plan through which it is all set to double its size by the end of the next year.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing here today, the bank CMD, Anil Khandelwal, said "We've prepared a business plan as per which we've to double our size in the forms of business deposits as well as advances between the period of 2005-08".

Talking in terms of revenue, he said that "My bank's turnover was Rs 1,23,000 crore in 2005 and by this month-end we're expecting to cross the mark of Rs 2,00,000 crore. Talking about the credit growth, he said that 25 per cent credit growth was expected by the year-end. As regards deposit growth, it was also likely to touch the mark of 25 per cent by the end of the current financial year.

Replying to a media query whether the bank will review its project of retaining the skipper of Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid who also happens to be the brand ambbassador of the bank, he said that "We've no any such plan as we feel that Rahul is the most resilient crisis manager". We had appointed him as our brand ambassador when he was just a cricketer and we will continue to keep him on our bank's fold until th end of next year, when the contract period comes to an end, he said.

Later talking to UNI, he said that "As per our plan, we want to use MTN (Medium Term Notes) route to raise funds to the tune of USD 1.5 billion over a certain period of time out of which we'll be raising a sum of USD 250 million soon through tier II capital".

Talking about the bank's domestic plans, he said that "We've already opened 48 branches in different parts of the country during the current financial year and we are having licences for opening 68 more branches in the country".

UNI