Daijiworld Media Network - UAE

Dubai, Mar 11: Bank of Baroda India’s second largest public sector lender, expects its overall global business to cross 163 billion in 2013-14, with overseas operations, driven by the UAE, contributing significantly to this record 25 per cent surge, the bank’s top official said.

S.S. Mundra, chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda (BoB), said the bank’s UAE operations played a critical role in boosting its overseas business growth that account for 30 per cent of its total global business. In 2012-13, bank’s global business was just over Rs8 trillion.

 “The UAE is very important to our scheme of things by accounting for 30 per cent of our overseas business. The UAE contributes 10 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, to our total business and profit globally, including India,” said Mundra.

He said international operations of the bank is to record stronger growth of 20-21 per cent compared to domestic operations expected to grow at 17-18 per cent in 2013-14.

“We will grow over two per cent higher than the average industry growth. If the industry is growing at around 15-16 per cent, BoB would be targeting 18-19 per cent growth,” he said.

Mundra’s upbeat projections for the year ending March 31 came almost a year after BoB opened its 100th overseas office at the Dubai International Finance Centre and set an ambitious business target of $1.2 billion for the very first year of its operation at the offshore facility.

Mundra, speaking to reporters at a Press briefing on Sunday during his visit to Dubai, said BoB, which is the third-largest foreign bank operating in the UAE, was optimistic about increased growth prospects in the Gulf in backdrop of an economic rebound with construction and trade activity picking up increased momentum.

On Sunday, Mundra inaugurated new premises of BoB at Crystal Plaza in Sharjah and Jebel Ali. On Monday, new premises of the Abu Dhabi branch was also opened.

Sounding upbeat on the Indian economy, the BoB chief said after a slowdown to around five per cent in 2013, the country’s gross domestic product, or GDP, is set to pick up pace as India managed to significantly reduce the current account deficit to 0.9 per cent from 6.5 per cent a year earlier by the third quarter ending December 2013.

In 2013-14, the bank achieved another record of setting up 3,400 new ATMs to take the total tally to 5,700 automated teller machines, he said.

Mundra said the global customer base of the bank has surpassed 59 million mark as a result of its aggressive growth both in India and abroad where BoB has operations in 24 countries through 101 overseas offices.

K.V. Rama Moorthy, the bank’s chief executive of the GCC operations; Naresh Gupta, head of BoB Deira branch; Savita Keni AGM BoB Abu Dhabi; P.N Mehrotra, deputy CEO, GCC; S.D Sontakke, deputy general manager, Dubai Main branch, were also present at the Press briefing.

Moorthy said BoB, present in the UAE since 1974, is the only Indian bank to offer full-fledged banking services through six mainland branches, an offshore branch at the DIFC, nine Electronic Banking Service Units and 37 ATMs.
In the Gulf, BoB has its presence in Oman with four branches and one wholesale office in Bahrain.

On Sunday, BoB held its Annual Customer Conference. Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister for Culture, Youth and Community Development, and T.P Seetharam, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, were present at the event.

Moorthy said in the UAE the bank has registered a compound annual growth rate of over 30 per cent in the last five years as of December 2013. The total business of the bank stood at Dh49 billion as the customer base grew to 285,000 from around 50,000 five years ago.

He said in terms of business as well as profitability, the UAE is the largest overseas territory of the bank. The UAE operations contributed 10 per cent to the global business, 11 per cent to the global gross profit and eight per cent to global net profit of the bank as of December 2013.

As at December 2013, overseas operations of the bank contributed 32.42 per cent to the global business, 25.2 per cent to the global gross profit and 27.33 per cent to the global net profit. GCC operations contributed 11 per cent to the global business, 12.22 per cent to the global gross profit and 9.31 per cent to the global net profit. Moorthy said the GCC operations contributed 34.12 per cent to the  bank’s overseas business, 48.50 per cent to the gross profit and 34.05 per cent to the net profit.

On Sunday, BoB has shifted its Sharjah branch premises to a more spacious and strategic location at Crystal Plaza to suit customer convenience, said Moorthy.

Over the past five years, the customer base of the Sharjah branch has grown to over 55,000 from 10,000. “We expect customer base of our Sharjah branch to reach to a level of over 100,000 in the next two years,” said Moorthy.
The bank’s Electronic Banking Service Units at  Jebel Ali, the first such facility of BoB in the UAE, has now been shifted to new premises at Limitless, Downtown, Jebel Ali.

In the UAE, BoB is the only Indian bank licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE to provide entire gamut of banking and financial services. The bank offers whole range of products and services for all segments.