Development Credit Bank (DCB) has undertaken a branch expansion drive in the western region and plans to open 50 branches by the end of this fiscal. The bank has already applied for the necessary approvals from the RBI and is likely to get the nod, Gautam Vir, managing director and chief executive officer of DCB said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The bank, which has already opened eight of its new branches so far this year, also plans to bring down the stake of the single-largest investor, Agha Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) to 10% by end of current fiscal.
AKFED currently holds 25% stake in the bank as against the 69% of it held until February last year.
The holding pattern of AKFED was still high at 25%, keeping in view the RBI norms that disallow a single investor stake holding of over 10%. Vir indicated that his bank was planning to get the AKFED stake down to RBI’s prescribed norm by the end of the current financial year. He maintained that the focus of his bank would be to grow organically so as to remain as a standalone institution during the current fiscal year.
The bank has also entered into a strategic tie-up for selling HDFC home loans, Vir said. Among the other plans DCB has is to tap the market for its Tier-II capital.