11 october 2003

hdfc bank q2 net up; first-half profit at rs 224 crore
mumbai: hdfc bank has reported a 30.6-per cent increase in net profit at rs 117.14 crore for the second quarter ended 30 september 2003-04, up from rs 89.69 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. the second quarter's growth is in line with the projected annual growth of 25-30 per cent. for the half-year ended 30 september 2003, the bank posted a net profit of rs 224.42 crore (rs 172.1 crore) and has average spreads as high as 3.60 per cent. the nyse-listed bank posted higher net profits as per us gaap accounting standards with a net profit of rs 236.6 crore for the half year (rs 161.9 crore).

interest earned has increased by 33.4 per cent to rs 640.24 crore (rs 479.64 crore). total income has increased to rs 726.50 crore (rs 607.28 crore) as total expenditure rose to rs 497.15 crore (rs 429.55 crore). other income saw a fall to rs 86.26 crore (rs 127.64 crore). the bank moved to the 90-day norm for recognition of non-performing assets and has one of the lowest ratios of net non-performing assets to customer assets of 0.37 per cent. provisions and contingencies have almost doubled to rs 63.76 crore (rs 43.36 crore).

il&fs investsmart to scale up pms
kolkata: il&fs investsmart plans to scale up its portfolio management scheme with a view to cater to more investors in the medium net worth segment in addition to large, bulge-bracket clients. the company sees significant opportunities emerging from what it identifies as the `middle market', comprising clients who can use its services to invest between rs 10-50 lakh.
il&fs investsmart, said hemang raja, md & ceo, will aggressively promote its wealth management initiatives, particularly among new clients. it has also proposed to offer a range of facilities, including advisory services, equity broking and distribution of financial products. "we will urge customers, especially those who simply use our advice, to try our pms", he said. the company will provide them with personalised services. the idea is to present each with a tailor-made solution, one that is based on unique characteristics such as personal objectives and return expectations.

rs 11,000-crore offer oversubscribed
mumbai: the rbi's open market operation to absorb rs 11,000 crore worth of liquidity from the bond market was a success, and was oversubscribed by almost rs 9,000 crore. the 5.48 per cent 2009 paper, which was on sale for a notified amount of rs 5,000 crore, received a total of 186 bids amounting to rs 9,952 crore. of these, 39 bids worth rs 5,000 crore were accepted at a cut-off price of rs 103.60.

the ytm on this paper is 4.74 per cent. the 6.17 per cent 2023 paper, which was auctioned for a notified amount of rs 6,000 crore, received a total of 368 bids amounting to rs 9,993 crore. of these, 246 bids were accepted, worth rs 6,000 crore, at the cut-off price of rs 105.51. bond dealers said that the cut-off prices fixed for the papers was in line with market expectations and the outlook for the market continues to be bullish, with no immediate concerns of a tightening in liquidity.

10 october 2003

nedfi in the pink of health; gross income rises 20%
kolkata: the guwahati-based north eastern development finance corporation (nedfi) has managed to generate profits despite operating in india's most backward region. for the year ended 31 march 2003, nedfi registered a healthy 20 per cent increase in gross income but net profit dropped by 10 per cent on account of sizeable provisioning.

the corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding with the dhaka-based south asia enterprise development facility (sedf) for increasing and improving its loan exposure in the medium and small-scale sectors. sedf is promoted by the washington-based international finance corporation and it is managed by the sme (small and medium enterprise) department of the world bank group.

canbank factors net profit rises 14.5%
bangalore: canbank factors ltd, a subsidiary of canara bank, has recorded a net profit of rs 5.2 crore for the quarter ended september 30, 2003, up 14.54 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous year. its performance comes at the back of improvement in the volume of factoring at rs 733 crore for the september quarter as against rs 568 crore for the same period in 2002.

the funds deployed in the business have also risen sharply to rs 237 crore as against rs 171 crore in the previous period, registering a growth of 39 per cent. the average deployment also witnessed a growth of 41 per cent at rs 226 crore as against rs 161 crore in the previous year.

syndicate bank board meet
mangalore: the meeting of the board of directors of syndicate bank will be held at manipal on 20 october to take on record the unaudited results for half-year ended 30 september 2003.

idbi bank, visa unveil gift card
mumbai: idbi bank along with visa international has launched a gift card, perhaps the first one of its kind. the pre-paid card with a minimum limit of rs 1,000 and up to a maximum of rs 20,000 is valid for a period of one year from the date of issue and can be swiped at 50,000 merchant establishments across the country.

rbi auction today for rs 11,000 crore
mumbai: the reserve bank of india will mop up rs 11,000 crore from the bond markets on 10 october as part of its open market operations. the rbi has decided to suck out the excess liquidity in the system, by offering the 5.48 per cent 2009 paper, for rs 5,000 crore and the 6.17 per cent 2023 paper for rs 6,000 crore, for sale by using the multiple price auction method.

9 october 2003

engle, granger win nobel prize for economics
stockholm: americans robert f engle and briton clive w j granger won the 2003 nobel memorial prize in economic sciences for their use of statistical methods for studying the timing behind economic developments, the royal swedish academy of sciences said wednesday.

the academy said their research is used to gather data for ``time series,'' such as chronological observations or for estimating relationships and testing hypotheses

cibil slashes credit report rates
mumbai: the credit information bureau (india) ltd, has announced special prices on its credit reports to incentivise banks and financial institutions to populate its database by march 2004 and kick off full-fledged commercial operations.

pnb, four other banks to share 1,700 atms
new delhi: punjab national bank ought to launch a drive for a nation-wide shared atm network, uti bank chairman pj nayak said here on wednesday. it is the largest player among the five banks who have teamed up to form a fourth shared-atm network in the country - along with indian bank, oriental bank of commerce, uti bank and global trust bank. pnb will act as the settlement bank for the mitr group, which will network a total of 1,700 atms across 143 cities.

uti bank gets rs 170 crore via pref equity allotment
new delhi: uti bank has mopped up rs 170 crore through issue of preferential equity to the life insurance corporation , the commonwealth development corporation and three other investors at a price of rs 42 per share in the last few months, chairman pj nayak told newspersons on wednesday.

8 october 2003

cdr route to tackle wilful defaults likely
mumbai: the reserve bank of india (rbi) may allow the corporate debt restructuring (cdr) mode to take up cases of wilful defaulters on a selective basis based on the viability of an entity and size of lenders' exposure. the rbi may even allow change of management, if need be, in such cases. "rbi is considering the issue of expanding the scope of cdr mechanism to selective wilful defaulters by taking up their cases for consideration for restructuring or sale or joint venture under the scheme. this will be done in the larger interest of the economy and to avoid wastage arising out of capital invested and unutilised assets," sources were quoted as saying.

it was found that keeping wilful defaulters out of the purview of the cdr mechanism was doing more harm to the lenders than to the defaulting companies. in some cases where the lenders have a huge collective exposure, cases are stuck due to their non-eligibility of being brought under the scheme.

sbi joins hands with hdfc bank, icici bank
mumbai: state bank of india has tied up with icici bank and hdfc bank for an atm sharing arrangement, allowing sbi customers access to biggest atm network in the country, with atms in excess of 4,500. with this, both icici bank and hdfc bank customers will also have access to sbi's vast atm network, which is at 2,068 atms at present and poised to touch the 3,000-mark by the end of this fiscal year.

the tie-up, however, is not a three-way arrangement: sbi has independent tie-ups with both icici bank and hdfc bank, while the two private sector banks do not have an atm sharing arrangement with each other. chanda kochhar, executive director, icici bank, said: "sbi and icici bank shared a lot of synergies in terms of the locations where we want to be at. however, many of hdfc bank's atm locations overlap with ours, so a similar tie-up does not make much sense at this time. icici bank is keeping its options open for similar tie-ups with other banks in the future."

idbi capital raises rs 125 crore via bonds
mumbai: primary dealer, idbi capital market services ltd has completed issuance of subordinated bonds eligible for tier-iii capital for an amount of rs 125 crore at a coupon rate of 6 per cent per annum payable annually for a maturity of 31 months. subscribers to the issue included banks, financial institutions and mutual funds.

j&k bank h1 net up 35%
new delhi: jammu and kashmir bank (j&k bank) has recorded a 35.04 per cent rise in net profit for the half-year ended 30 september 2003 to rs 198.50 crore against rs 146.99 crore during the same period last year.

the operating profit of the bank has gone up by 26.51 per cent to rs 332.81 crore against rs 263.06 crore. the total income of the bank has risen by rs 88 crore to rs 920.85 crore during the six-month period.

sbm slashes rates on term deposits, loans
bangalore: the state bank of mysore, an affiliate of the sbi, has lowered its interest rates on domestic term deposits ranging from 25 basis points to 75 basis points for a tenor between 15 to 45 days and one year to two-year period loans.

the new rates have been effective from 1 october. the bank has also reduced the interest rate on personal loans and tractor loans along with the rate on loans given to small business.

pnb cuts rates under flexible deposit scheme
new delhi: punjab national bank (pnb) has revised interest rates under its flexible rate deposit scheme with effect from 1 october. the interest rate for deposits of three years to less than five years has been revised from 5.92 per cent to 5.16 per cent per annum. the rate for five years to less than seven years has been revised from 6.17 per cent to 5.41 per cent and the rate for seven years to less than 10 years has been revised from 6.42 per cent to 5.66 per cent.

the flexible rate deposit scheme operates on a market determined interest rate linked to a government security paper called the benchmark rate. the rate is calculated on the basis of average yield to maturity for the last six months for 10 years' government paper. the objective of the scheme is to hedge against the interest rate volatility by offering deposits at flexible rates. the minimum deposit under the scheme is rs 1 lakh and in multiples of rs 10,000 thereafter.

7 october 2003

andhra bank ties up with idbi bank
bangalore: andhra bank has tied up with idbi bank for creating a shared atm (automatic teller machine) network. s
briefing reporters the andhra bank's chairman and managing director, dr b. vasanthan, said the tie-up would allow andhra bank access to about 290 atm outlets of idbi bank.

andhra bank already has about 242 atms installed throughout the country. it is also on the verge of tying up with one more public sector bank to increase the atm network. he, however, declined to name the bank.

dhanalakshmi bank to sell uiicl products
kochi: the chennai-based united india insurance company ltd (uiicl) has signed an mou with the kerala-based dhanalakshmi bank ltd for marketing their insurance products through the bank.
the bank would act as a corporate agent of the insurer besides being a one-stop solution for both banking and insurance requirements, an official press release said.

united india insurance and dhanalakshmi bank are desirous of optimally utilising each other's strength and potentials through this tie up and the bank officials would be imparted training by the insurance company, mr k. sanath kumar, regional manager (kerala), uiicl, said on the occasion.

6 october 2003

idbi invites bids for modi alkalies
new delhi: industrial development bank of india (idbi) has invited bids for takeover, amalgamation or merger of the kn modi group-promoted sick company, modi alkalies and chemicals ltd (macl). idbi is trying to revive the company in its role as the operating agency appointed by the board for industrial and financial reconstruction (bifr).
the company was declared sick on 15 january 2002 by bifr. trading in macl's stock is suspended on all stock exchanges including mumbai since march 2001. macl informed the bombay stock exchange that as on 30 june 2003, indian public holds a 30.41-per cent equity stake in the company. the company's stock was traded at rs 1.35 per share on the bse before it was suspended.

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