State Bank of India, India's largest bank, proposes to hive off the management of its premises and estates into a separate subsidiary. The bank, which has over 16,000 branches, has property that has a book value of Rs 2,091 crore. It owns over 1,000 office premises and over 10,000 residential flats.
The bank feels that estates and premises management is a non-core activity and hiving it off to a subsidiary will enable it to focus on its core activity. The bank has called for a bid from consultants to advise it on the process of hiving this activity into a subsidiary. The subsidiary is expected to focus on reducing costs, improving efficiency, while also constructing environment-friendly buildings.