BankMuscat eying fresh deals for expansion in India

Anubha Ghosh

Bangalore, Jan 1: With the dust settling down on the IDBI-BankMuscat deal, the Oman-based BankMuscat is now looking at other creative options to expand in India. Speaking to The Financial Express, BankMuscat India CEO Samit Ghosh said: “We are examining fresh deals with some institutions on a similar scale.”

Earlier, there were talks of BankMuscat picking up a 20 per cent stake in IDBI which would have effectively merged BankMuscat with IDBI.
Mr Ghosh said, ‘‘We are looking at new creative options to expand in India, which are different from the IDBI transaction. It could be a merger or an alliance with a local financial institution. Now that the IDBI transaction is behind us, we are starting from scratch.’’

However, Mr Ghosh did not divulge the details of the new deals saying they are at a very preliminary stage.

But he insisted that the bank will stick to its earlier strategy of not considering an expansion on its own to the northern part of the country.

BankMuscat also revealed that its EasyLife service which met with a huge success initially when introduced in June, got a setback following talks of the IDBI deal.

Easylife is a savings account clubbed with a range of personal, healthcare and wealth management services, which are being provided through tie-ups with Les Concierge, Medybiz and Parasmoney.

BankMuscat has a lone branch in Bangalore, it also being the bank’s first overseas branch. Its plan to open branches in Mumbai and Delhi were also stalled with the IDBI episode. ‘‘But now it will be business as usual,’’ Mr Ghosh said.

Further, the bank is taking a fresh look at its plan to open more ATMs across the country. It made a foray into the country in 1998 with a focus on corporate and treasury business. It has four ATMs in the city and plans to add two offsite ATMs.