Catholic Syrian Bank expects to raise funds by December

CSB needs Rs 400-600 crore, from current growth projections

Kerala-based Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) hopes to conclude its fundraising exercise by December.

T S Anantharaman, chairman, said the second half of the exercise would be concluded by then. CSB needs Rs 400-600 crore. Sources say SSG Capital Management, InCred Finance, Aion Capital, JM Financial and Everstone-backed IndoStar Capital are among the investors which have shown interest. 

R Rajendran, managing director of CSB, say that 25-30 investors had shown interest and three-odd rounds of discussion were over. He said: “We have told the Reserve Bank that CSB will be listed in the next one and a half years.”

CSB had a net loss of Rs 149 crore in 2015-16 and then turned around in 2016-17, with net profit of Rs 1.6 crore, on the back of treasury gains. Anatharaman said the challenge was to have growth in operating profit this year without the benefit of treasury gain. The operating profit was Rs 9 crore in the first, June, quarter and Rs 34 crore in the September one. Net loss was Rs 14 crore in the first quarter; the next one saw a profit of nearly Rs 1 crore. 

 The aim in the financial year’s second half was to make up for the June quarter’s loss and register a decent profit overall, said Anatharaman.

Rajendran said they were targeting a credit to deposit ratio of 75 per cent by year-end, from 52 per cent now. The cost to income ratio would be brought down to 50 per cent from the current 75 per cent; it was 103 per cent last year.

It has set a target to grow three per cent more than the sector average in both advances and deposits in 2018-19. 

During the half year ended September 30 , advances grew Rs 1,240 crore to Rs 9,585 crore. Gross and net non-performing asset ratios had come down to 6.75 per cent and 4.73 per cent, respectively, as on end-September. Gross and Net NPA figures were Rs 624 crore and Rs 428 crore, respectively.