India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank announced on June 30, 2014, that it is planning to expand its branch network to Mauritius and South Africa, besides Australia.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chanda Kochhar, told reporters on the occasion of its 20th annual general meeting that the bank had obtained regulatory approvals from the Indian central bank to open the branches and in addition, the representative office in China will be upgraded.
“Under the bank’s foreign expansion plans, we will open branches in Australia, South Africa and Mauritius for which clearance has already been received from the Reserve Bank of India. We already have a representative office in China, where we will open a full-fledged branch,” Chanda Kochhar said.
Moreover, she mentioned that ICICI has the largest overseas network among Indian private sector banks.
It also has three subsidiaries and eight representative offices abroad among which the subsidiaries in UK and Canada have had selective growth in business along with an improvement in profitability after a period of consolidation.
“We have also focused on optimising the capital levels in this business through repatriation of capital and dividend payouts,” she added.
Further, ICICI put emphasis on reinforcing its business, network, technological capabilities and financial parameters during the fiscal year of 2013-2014, and in doing so, an additional 653 branches and 834 ATMs were established by the bank to take the total network to 3,753 branches and 11,315 ATMs.
“We were cognizant of the risks in the environment and calibrated our approach accordingly. Our future outlook is positive. We believe that the formation of a stable government with a focus on growth will help realise India’s vast potential,” Kochhar said.
According to the latter, the bank’s opportunities for profitable growth will be boosted with a strong and diversified franchise, large distribution network, healthy capital position and sustained improvements in the balance sheet and profitability profile.
“We adopted a balanced approach towards growth, profitability and risk management,” she said.
Finally, Kochhar highlighted that during fiscal year 2014, the bank’s performance could be improved in an environment marked by elevated interest rates, low growth and significant market volatility.
Source: Press Trust of India
About ICCI Bank:
Promoted in 1994 by ICICI Limited, an Indian financial institution, ICICI Bank is India’s largest private sector bank with total assets of Rs. 5,946.42 billion (approximately Rs 3.03 trillion Mauritian Rupees) at March 31, 2014 and profit after tax Rs. 98.10 billion (Rs 49.05 billion Mauritian Rupees) for the year ended March 31, 2014.
The bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its group companies.
Source: Company Website
Image (Wikipedia): The bank has obtained regulatory approvals from the Indian central bank to open the branches, said Chanda Kochhar, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of India’s largest private sector lender.
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