Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) on Wednesday opened a new branch in Mumbai which will handle bank's high profile corporate clients. This will the bank's 900th branch. The bank branch was inaugurated by RBI deputy governor, Jagdish Capoor. "Through this high profile on line branch, we expect to disburse Rs 800 crore in the fiscal 1999-2000," said bank's chairman and managing director Dalbir Singh. "The objective behind opening of a corporate finance branch was to provide dedicated and specialised services to corporate sector," he said. The bank has recently got permission form central bank to commence bullion trading in the country. "We have done one bullion trade on back to back basis," he said. For the current fiscal, the bank expects to increase its deposit base from Rs 17,000 crore to Rs 21,000 crore. The bank's short term plan is to increase its exposure towards infrastructure sector and becoming more active in the housing finance sector. "We expect to do businessworth Rs 200 crore in the housing finance sector in the current fiscal," he said.

Icra assigns highest rating to HDFC debt

Icra has assigned an `LAAA' rating to the Rs 500 crore long-term debt programme of HDFC --indicating highest safety on the stength of strong recovery performance, relatively low level of NPAs, diversified sources of funding, the strong inflow of fixed deposits and low gearing levels of the company. Meanwhile Duff & Phelps credit rating agency has assigned DCR Ind 5 (CIS) rating to the collective investment schemes of Green Vidharbe Farms and Prime Gren Forests, signifying that the issuers have failed to meet the scheduled principal or interest payments.

RBI rejection

RBI has rejected the applications for grant of certificates of registration submitted by the west bengal-based financial companies Acceptable Finvest Company limited and Kanwal Financiers limited of Chandigarh on June 8, 1999. According to an RBI release here today, the above companies cannot transactthe business of non-banking financial institutions.

Baush & Lomb debt issue on rating watch

Crisil has placed the outstanding rating of Baush & Lomb India Ltd's (BLIL) Rs 36.4 million partly convertible debenture issue on rating watch with developing implications. The rating decision stems from the agreement reached between Bausch & Lomb Inc, USA and Luxxotica Group SP.A. of Italy wherein the latter would consider purchasing Bausch & Lomb's current holding in BLIL and the decision by BLIL to divest its vision care business.

Crisil said it is in dialogue with the management of BLIL to ascertain the implications of the proposed changes on the credit profile of the company and will soon announce its final view on the ratings.