Siddarth Sitholey To Head Centurion From August 1

Siddarth Sitholey will join Centurion Bank as its managing director on August 1, 2001. He is presently the managing director and chief executive officer at Development Credit Bank (DCB). Sitholey joined DCB in January 1993. Prior to that he was with State Bank of India.

At DCB, Sitholey will hand over the charge to Ramesh Sobti, who is currently the chief executive officer of ABN Amro Bank.

Centurion Bank has been headless ever since M J Subbaih put in his papers on March 31, 2001. The private sector bank has been facing liquidity crunch following the failure of the Rs 128.8 crore rights issue on account of poor response from the retail investors. The issue was offered at a premium of Rs 2 per share in the ratio of 7 equity shares for every 10 equity shares held.

Currently, the capital adequacy ratio of the bank currently stands at around 9.6. To shore up the capital adequacy, the bank is looking at offering preferential shares to the major promoter groups. Keppel Tatlee Bank of Singapore holds around 17.71 per cent. However, Keppel is likely to be taken over by the Overseas China Banking Corporation. Twentieth Century Finance Corporation has a 23.12 per cent stake in the bank.

While other major promoters of the bank, including Asian Development Bank of Manila, have 10.22 per cent stake, International Finance Corporation has 8.36 per cent.

Centurion Bank posted a net loss of Rs 26.16 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2001, compared with net profit of Rs 17.83 crore for the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Also, the net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2001, stood lower at Rs 7.02 crore compared with Rs 34.33 crore in the previous year.