Abn Amro Shortlists Banks For Takeover

ABN Amro today officially expressed its desire to take over the management control of a bank in India. The bank has also finalised a list of possible takeover candidates to this effect.

Romesh Sobti, executive vice-president and country representative, at a press conference here today said, "We are on the lookout for taking over a bank and have kept our options open, but the takeover has to match criteria such as, management control being transferred to ABN Amro, and the profile of the takeover candidate matching ours."

The bank is also evaluating the option of growing through the subsidiary route, but, "There are enough grey areas which need to be clarified by the Reserve Bank of India before allowing us to take any such decision," explained Sobti. Although Sobti did not put any time frame for a takeover, he said, "If we find a bank worth taking over in the near future we will do it. But the process will involve a lot of due-diligence and background work before we decide on the takeover."

Nevertheless, ABN has recently entered into metal hedging business for large corporate. It is offering such services for metals like copper, aluminium, and steel. The bank is also expected to offer such services for petroleum, once companies start procuring oil on their own from the international market.

Meanwhile, ABN has drawn up plans organic growth plans whereby it will expand its presence to 30 cities by 2005. At present, it has 13 branches in nine cities. With a Rs 9,000 crore balance sheet size, the banks expects to grow at 40 per cent in the current fiscal of which around 50 per cent will be from the consumer and commercial business while the rest will be from its whole sale business. This ratio is close to 30:70 at present.

With a view to expand its share of consumer business, ABN has been on the drive to expand its private and preferred banking in areas where it is already present. The bank today introduced its unique international branch model at its recently relocated Kolkata branch. This branch will have separate lobbies for its preferred banking and regular banking.