Kochi: The net worth of Lord Krishna Bank has crossed Rs 100 crore with the oversubscription of its Rs 35.77-crore rights issue. The rights issue, which concluded on 9 March 2002, was offered at a premium of Rs 2 per share in the ratio of 10 equity shares for every nine held.

The net worth of the bank will reach a level of Rs 109.55 crore after the rights issue, from Rs 73.78 crore achieved on 31 December 2001. With the increase in the net worth, the bank is planning to pursue large corporate accounts and PSU deposits.

The bank is relaunching its retail products on 26 March 2002 after fine-tuning them and making them customer-friendly and market competitive. The bank, which is planning to add more retail products and services, will also foray into boutique branches that will offer a wide range of financial products, like mutual funds, life and non-life insurance, depository services and debit cards. The bank is also redefining and rationalising its corporate policies.

Elaborating the future growth plans, Lord Krishna Bank MD and CEO R P Gupta said besides the network expansion and consolidation, he will be listing the bank on leading stock exchanges and is considering an initial public offer in the coming financial year.

The banks capital adequacy ratio has improved from 12.90 per cent to 14.87 per cent as on 15 February 2002, which is higher than the stipulated level of 9 per cent. The bank has declared a dividend of 10 per cent for the year. It is for the seventh consecutive year that the bank is paying dividends.

The profitability of the bank has also improved. The operating profit has more than doubled to Rs 32.94 crore as on 31 December 2001 from Rs 9.94 crore in the previous year. The net profit has been Rs 15.37 crore for the period as compared to 0.94 crore the previous year.

The bank is also expanding its network of 92 branches spread across 10 states. It has opened five new branches two in New Delhi and one each in Jalandhar, Chennai and Bangalore. At present, 85 per cent of the banks business is computerised. The bank is going for a massive drive to install ATMs in all its branches. Now 15 branches of the bank are authorised to carry out full-fledged forex business.