IFC declines more exposure to Centurion

Despite the fact that Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Kephinance Investment [Mauritius] Pte Ltd (KIPL) have acquired additional stakes of 6.5 per cent in Centurion Bank as part of their commitment to infuse additional Rs 25 crore into the equity of the company, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank body, has decided against infusing fresh fund into the bank. IFC is also unlikely to take increased exposure in Centurion even at a later stage.

IFC in the pre-merger scenario held close to 8.36 per cent in Centurion which has declined to around four per cent post merger. Following the merger with Bank Muscat and infusion of funds by Sabre Capital, Centurion Bank is all set to emerge an aggressive player in the retail segment and has firmed up plans of entering housing loan, passenger car loan, personal loans, credit cards, loans against shares, insurance and mutual funds segments in the next couple of years.

As of now, the bank is not present in any of these retail banking segments. "We hope to emerge as one among the top three players in the segment in which we would be entering and we want to go cautiously for all the product categories," explained Shailendra Bhandari, managing director, Centurion Bank.

"We are, however, among the top players in the two-wheeler segment and would like to see that happen for all the other retail segments we plan to enter," he added.

"The plan is to emerge a strong player either regionally or pan-India for each product segment. In the initial stage, we will be launching personal loans, car loans and mortgage products which would be followed by credit cards, loans against shares, mutual funds and insurance," he informed.

"We are also looking at the wealth management segment," he said.

"Although, we are primarily a retail bank with state-of-the-art information technology infrastructure, and we registered a 30 per cent growth in our retail asset base, we have to grow at a rate that would have to be higher than the industry average growth rate to achieve the slots we are targeting," Bhandari said.