Union Bank of India plans acquisitions of new banks
Keen to open branches in other Countries to attrct NRIs


Kochi, October 4, 2004
PTI

Public-sector Union Bank of India plans to acquire new banks and had held discussions with some merchant banks, a top bank official has said.

Though UBI had not yet identified any banks for takeover, talks had been held with some merchant banks, its executive director K Ratnakar Hegde told reporters late on Sunday.

"Today what is being talked about is merger of strong banks. It is purely depended on availability and no timeframe has been fixed for mergers or takeovers by the bank," he said.

Union Bank, which does not have a presence abroad, is also keen to open branches in the Gulf countries, especially due to the presence of a large NRI population.

The bank is targeting a profit of Rs 1000 crore this fiscal, against last year's profit of Rs 700 crore.

To help the unemployed youth and women in rural areas, the bank had plans to open 11 more rural development and training institutes in the country.

While the first such centre was opened at Kothamangalam in Kerala's Ernakulam district two days ago, the next would be set up at Varanasi, he said.

Giving the current year's business figures, Hegde said the bank expects to touch a business (deposits and credits) worth Rs 1 lakh crore. It had already reached Rs 92,000 crore by September this year against last year's volumes of Rs 80,000 crore.