United Bank of India will seek shareholders' nod on March 23 to make a preferential allotment of equity to the Central Government, its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Bhaskar Sen, has said.
The Centre intends to pump in Rs 308 crore (including premium portion) into the bank through the equity route. With this capital infusion, the Centre's stake in the bank will go up from 84.2 per cent to 85.48 per cent, Mr Sen said. This capital infusion comes as part of the Centre's efforts to strengthen the capital base of public sector banks.
Mr Sen ruled out any further public offering (FPO) from the bank during financial year 2011-12. He said that the bank will take a call on FPO in end-March 2012. He also made it clear that the bank was not looking to raise any Tier II capital for now.
Corporate finance branch
Mr Sen was here for the launch of first of the dedicated corporate finance branch of the bank. This branch will cater to the needs of all the corporate customers of the bank in the Northern region, he said.
Plans are afoot to open this week a corporate finance branch in Mumbai and also one in Kolkata by end of this month.
“Our idea is to have one corporate finance branch in each of the zones of North, East and West. All our corporate customers would be serviced from these dedicated branches. For the South, we are looking to open a regional office in Bangalore and then we will take a call on having a dedicated corporate finance branch for the South,” Mr Sen said.
United Bank of India also intends to roll out retail processing centres and has RBI approval to open 26 such centres. For 2011-12, the bank expects its advance to grow by 22 per cent.