Andhra Bank to raise Rs 400 crore through debts

Kolkata, Aug 16 (UNI) Andhra Bank proposes to raise Rs 400 crore through debts and form a joint venture bank in Malayasia this fiscal, Chairman and Managing Director K Ramaswamy today said.

"We are planning to raise Rs 400 crore by 2007-08 as tier two capital. We do not have take the route of equity dilution since we have a capital adequacy ratio of 11.3 per cent," he told reporters on the sidelines of banking conclave here.

Mr Ramaswamy said the proposed joint venture bank would be in association with Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda for which negotiations were in an advance stage.

He said Andhra Bank had applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for opening a representative office in New Jersey in the US.

At present bank has a representative office in Dubai.

In reply to a question, the CMD said the bank was expecting growth both in advances and deposits this fiscal respectively at 25 per cent and 23 per cent.

UNI