BoB pips Canara Bank to become third-largest PSU bank

Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped Canara Bank in terms of net profit and total business for fiscal 2008-09 to become third-largest public sector player in India.

Mumbai-based BoB's net profit for 2008-09 stood at Rs 2,227 crore, about Rs 155 crore higher than that of Canara Bank in FY09.

Bangalore-based Canara Bank's net profit grew by 32 per cent to Rs 2,072 crore during the fiscal as compared to Rs 1,565 crore in 2007-08.

At the same time, total business of BoB stood at Rs 3,36,383 crore at the end of fiscal 2008-09, about Rs 11,000 crore higher than its closest competitor in the same fiscal.

Interestingly, Canara Bank could increase its business mix by 24 per cent to Rs 3,25,112 crore at the end of March 2009 against Rs 2,61,310 at the end of 2007-08.

BoB, which was fourth-largest public sector lender at the end of March 2008, had a business mix of Rs 2,58,735 crore, about Rs 2,500 crore lower than the then third largest player in FY08.

The new leader aims to grow its total business by 23-25 per cent in the current fiscal, with its core fee-income expected to expand by 25 per cent.

By that yardstick total business of the bank would increase to Rs 4,14,000-4,20,000 crore while Canara Bank aims to cross Rs 4,00,000 crore-mark.

For the fourth quarter ended March 2009, BoB reported nearly three-fold growth in its net profit at Rs 752.69 crore on robust growth in net interest income and fee-based revenue.

Total income stood at Rs 4,992.41 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 against Rs 3,885.7 crore in the year-ago period.

"Maintaining quality of assets and reducing dependence of expensive bulk deposits are key focus areas of the bank in year 2009-10. Also, growing our retail term deposits is also a priority," Bank of Baroda's Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya had said while announcing the result.

Net interest income (NII) of the bank stood at Rs 5,123.41 crore, posting a growth rate of 31 per cent, while low-cost current and savings account deposits posted a growth rate of 20 per cent over the last year.

State Bank of India is the country's largest public sector bank followed by Punjab National Bank.