Indian Bank proposes to raise funds through FPO

CHENNAI: Public sector Indian Bank proposes to raise funds through Follow on Public Offer ( FPO) next year, according to a bank official.

On their proposal to raise funds through FPO, Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director T M Bhasin said the bank was quite "comfortable" with the present capital.

"We are waiting for conducive market conditions.. However, it (plans to raise funds) will not be required till March 31,2012 as we are comfortable with the present capital..", he told reporters here after announcing the bank's quarterly results.

In May 2011, the bank had said it would file initial papers for its follow-on public offer, after it received an approval from the government to sell 61.4 million shares.

The Chennai-headquartered bank witnessed a 12.7 per cent jump on its net profits for the quarter ending September 30, 2011 at Rs 468.69 crore as against Rs 415.77 crore registered duing the same period of previous year.

On their future plans, he said the Bank would come out with new products for its customers by November 30.

"We are rebranding our Savings Bank accounts portfolio.. It will be divided into two categories. One under Rs one lakh and the other above Rs one lakh category.. It will take atelast a fortnight to launch...hopefully, by November 30, we will be launching some products..", he said.

The bank as part of expanding its services as planned to open 2,000 branches by March 31, 2012. Currently, it has about 1900 branches and 1,200 ATMs across India.