Public sector Vijaya Bank to hit market to raise capital of Rs 1,000 crore

Coimbatore: Public sector Vijaya Bank would be raising Rs 1,000 crore capital from the market, though it has adequate capital compared to other banks, a top bank official said on Friday.

'We have adequate capital and not requested the government to infuse more capital. But the bank is targeting f CRAR (Credit Adequacy Ratio) of 13 plus % by close of the fiscal," Vijaya Bank Managing Director and CEO, Kishore Sansi told reporters here. The board has cleared the proposal to raise the capital and the bank will hit the market by the end of first quarter of this financial year or latest by the beginning of second quarter, Sansi said.

The official, who was here to participate in Debt Swap Scheme for the benefit of farmers to clear the loans taken from money lenders, said the profit of the bank has zoomed and NPAs have come down during the 2016-17. For the entire 2016-17 fiscal, the bank's net profit nearly doubled to Rs 750.45 crore as compared to Rs 381.80 crore in the previous fiscal, he said.

The operating profit was at Rs 2,421.15 crore, up by 56.32% from Rs 1,548.87 crore, he said. The bank continued to focus on Retail and MSME sector and the retail advances increased to Rs 29,235 crore, up by 24.33%, which was 30.29% of gross advances, he said.

Gross NPA was down to 6.59% from 6.64%. The bank also plans to open 100 more branches during this fiscal, Sansi said.