Corporation Bank eyes buyouts with OIC aid

Corporation Bank (Corp Bank) is looking at acquiring a bank in the west or north and may rope in OIC alliance partners - Indian Bank and Oriental bank of Commerce.

"The bank has an adequate foundation to raise capital of over Rs 3,600 crore, especially hybrids and bonds. This capital can be useful in case we get a good candidate for acquisition," chairman and managing director B Sambhamurthi said.

On whether it would work with alliance partners, he said, "We are not averse to a joint acquisition. Our approach is to allow the partnership to evolve and not rush through." He did not elaborate if bank had specific bank in mind.

The OIC banks are in process of sharing currency chests, information technology and training infrastructure. They will also collaborate for market research and product development.

On the branch expansion plans, he said the Mangalore-based has added 180 branches in the last three years. Now it has 901 branches and expects to touch 1,000 mark by end of March 2008.

Corporation Bank, a state-owned banking entity, will scale up its home loan portfolio in this financial year. The outstanding home loan portfolio was Rs 3,600 crore with gross non-performing assets of about 3 per cent.

The bank's net profit for 2006-07 rose by 20.63 pr cent to Rs 536.14 crore from Rs 444.46 crore in 2005-06. Advances rose by 24.99 per cent to Rs 29,949.65 crore, while deposits were up by 28.83 per cent to Rs 42,356.89 crore.