IDBI Bank is in talks with few foreign companies to form a joint venture to foray into the mutual fund business. In this regard, the bank has submitted a proposal to the Reserve Bank of India three months back, said IDBI’s chairman and managing director Yogesh Agarwal.
While Agarwal did not mention the share holding pattern in the mutual fund company, he said the bank will definitely have majority stake in it.
The bank, also looking at entering the private equity business, is awaiting RBI’s approval. While the mutual fund business will be a separate company, IDBI bank is yet to decide on the structure of the private equity business.
Meanwhile, IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDBI, is planning to form a credit information unit with CARE, a Mumbai headquartered credit rating agency. The 50:50 joint venture will start with an initial corpus of Rs 2 crore, Agarwal said.
Present at the banking conclave organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, (Ficci) Agarwal said, the bank planning to open an offshore banking branch in Singapore , full-fledged branches in Dubai , Bahrain & London and a representative office in Shanghai .
While the bank has already received approval from the concerned authority in Bahrain , green signals from the regulatory bodies in other four countries are still pending. IDBI Bank has a network of 503 branches in India at present and will be adding 200 more by this year-end.