SBI plans Rs 3000 cr debt issue

“For the April to August period the decline in credit has been of the level of Rs 750 crore while last year it was Rs 3,200 crore,” Janakiraman added. SBI has formed a joint venture with CanaraBank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank and Credit Suisse for the gold as saying business, Janakiraman said.

“The JV will have an authorised capital of Rs 15 crore and an application will shortly be made to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for necessary approvals,” he said. Sixteen units would be set up across the country and 50 branches had been identified through which the business would be carried out, according to Janakiraman.

SBI’s market share in the gold trading business was 18 per cent for the January to July 1999 period as against five per cent last year, he said adding, the total trading was worth Rs 2,300 crore.

The banking major was going in for housing loans in a big way and had targeted a growth of Rs 900 crore for the current year, Janakiraman added. According to the State Bank MD, the bank has substantially invested money market instruments like commercial papers (CPs) and non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of top-rated corporates. SBI’s total investment in commercial papers is to thetune of Rs 1,600 crore.

He pointed out that since its inception eight to nine months ago, SBI’s card business had crossed 100,000 and has set a target of two million subscribers by 2002. The bank has also cast aside Rs 3,200 crore for funding infrastructural project in the current fiscal. "Out of a total disbursal of Rs 2,000 crore for the infrastructure sector, Rs 400 crore has been drawn so far. We expect credit to pick up shortly," he said. It has recently entered into a take-out financing deal with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corp for two projects worth Rs 100 crore, the MD said. He said the credit disbursal is likely to go up once the key industrial segments like automobile and cement post growth in production and sales.