Dhanalakshmi Bank plans to start VC, AMC biz

Thrissur-based Dhanalakshmi Bank plans to float a venture capital fund and an asset management company (AMC) next year, a top company official said.

"We are planning to launch our venture capital fund in the first-quarter of the next financial year while the asset management company will be floated in the last quarter of this fiscal," Dhanalakshmi Bank Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi told reporters here.

The bank expects to get approval for both the businesses from the regulators by December, he said.

To launch the venture capital fund, Dhanalakshmi Bank would first float a wholly-owned venture capital company which would launch the fund, he said.

The bank is yet to fine-tune the business model of the venture capital fund, Chaturvedi said, adding that, "the initial corpus of the fund will be $150-million."

"The AMC business would be through a joint venture with an existing player," he said, without disclosing further details.

In order to transform itself from a regional bank to a pan-India bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank is planning to ramp-up its branch and ATM networks across the country.

Currently, the bank has a strong presence in the southern part of the country. It has 207 branches which includes 26 extension centres.

"We want to have a pan-India presence and hence will be opening 66 branches across the country by the end of 2009," Chaturvedi said.

Of the 66 branches, Dhanalakshmi Bank recently opened 27 branches in states such as Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, among others.

"We presently have 78 ATMs and in the next 10 days we will be launching 100 more across the country," he said.

"We are on a growth path and will create a solid institution at Dhanalakshami Bank," Chaturvedi said.

When asked about the RBI's monetary policy to be announced later this month, he said that no major announcement was expected.

"There is enough liquidity in the system and credit has just started picking-up. I do not expect any rate change in the policy," Chaturvedi said.