SBI eyes higher profits in FY12, plans expansion abroad

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest state-owned lender, today said its profit this fiscal will surpass that of last year, and announced plans to expand operations overseas through subsidiaries including one in Australia.

"With very good net interest income, the bank during the current fiscal should be able to outperform its earlier profit level which ranged from Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 9,000 crore," CBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said.

During 2010-11, SBI's profit had plunged to Rs 8,265 crore, registering a decline of 9.84% from that of the previous year.

Stating that the interest margin was an impressive 3.8%, Chaudhuri said though SBI's profit during the first quarter of the current fiscal was restricted to Rs 1,550 crore, it rose substantially to Rs 2,850 crore in the second quarter.

Unveiling plans for expansion of overseas operations, Chaudhuri said SBI was set to have a subsidiary in Australia within a year and has proposals for expansion in the US and Britain.

Similarly, concrete steps had been taken for opening two branches in Bangladesh by the bank which had already launched operations in countries like Quatar and Saudi Arabia, he said.