Punjab & Sind Bank to recruit 1,000 this year

State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank, which has filed papers for a Rs 600 crore initial public offer (IPO), plans to recruit 1,000 more people this year to meet growth objectives.

"We are going to have a second round of recruitment this year of about 1,000 personnel, including officers and specialist officers," Punjab & Sind Bank Executive Director P K Anand told PTI.

The bank has just inducted about 700 officers and staff, keeping in view branch expansion plans and vacancies created due to retirement.

Of the 1,000 people, 440 would be probationary officers, 260 specialist officers and about 300 clerks, he said.

The bank, which is wholly owned by the government of India, has a staff strength of 8,000.

Punjab & Sind Bank, the only unlisted state-owned lender, filed a draft prospectus for an IPO last month.

The bank expects to launch the IPO by the end of November or by early December, subject to regulatory clearances.

The bank proposes to issue up to 4 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be discovered through a 100 per cent book building process.

The government would offload about 17.9 per cent of its stake through the IPO and post-offer, its holding would come down to about 82 per cent, he said.

The fund proceeds would be utilised for business expansion. At the same time, the bank plans to increase its branch network from 918 to 1,000 by the end of March, 2011, he added.

In the 2009-10 fiscal, the bank had posted an 18 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 508.8 crore from Rs 431.1 crore in the previous year.

Total income rose by 19 per cent to Rs 4,345.9 crore, while net interest income grew by 17 per cent to Rs 1,183.9 crore and business rose by 37.9 per cent to Rs 81,894 crore during the 2009-10 financial year.