Mahesh Bank to expand operations in west

City-based AP Mahesh Cooperative Urban Bank Limited (Mahesh Bank) is looking at further expanding its footprint in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, besides covering new markets like Gujarat during the present financial year, according to Umesh Chand Asawa, managing director and chief executive officer.

“We have already obtained approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to expand our area of operation to the entire states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. We will be opening a branch each at Surat in Gujarat and Bhilwara in Rajasthan and two in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad this year,” he told Business Standard.

The multi-state scheduled bank presently has a network of 38 branches — 30 in the twin cities, six in other districts of Andhra Pradesh, and one each in Jaipur and Mumbai.

Mahesh Bank reported a net profit of Rs 17.41 crore for the financial year-ended March 2012, compared to Rs 15.02 crore in the previous year, reflecting a growth of 16 per cent. Its total business witnessed a 27.5 per cent growth to Rs 1,913 crore for the financial year 2011-12, as against Rs 1,500 crore a year ago.

The bank’s total deposits stood at Rs 1,160 crore, as against Rs 908 crore, recording a growth of 27.8 per cent, while advances grew 23.2 per cent to Rs 747 crore, as compared to Rs 606 crore. Asawa said the bank’s credit deposit ratio stood at 64.36 per cent (66.73 per cent in FY11), and CRAR (capital to risk asset ratio) at 21 per cent, as against 9 per cent prescribed by the RBI.

“Our net interest margin (NIM) was at 4.95 per cent in FY12, as against 4.29 per cent in the previous year. We were able to maintain higher NIM on the back of high-yielding share of our gold loan portfolio, which stood at 45 per cent,” he said.

The bank is on the threshold of launching IMPS, an interbank electronic instant mobile money transfer service through mobile phones. and ‘RuPay’ debit card, within the next two months, according to him. “We have a vision-mission 2020 where we propose to achieve an aggregate business of Rs 10,000 crore, a profit of Rs 100 crore, net NPAs to be maintained at zero level and spread our network to 100 branches and ATMs,” Asawa said.