Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second largest state-owned lender, has unveiled an aggressive plan to expand its footprint overseas. The capital allocation for extending branches and floating PNB subsidiaries is most likely to cross Rs 350 crore within a span of 12-18 months. PNB has already appointed consultancy firms to facilitate liaisoning with local regulators who will acquire branch opening licences and accomplish other formalities.
Ranjan Dhawan, general manager (overseas expansion), PNB, said, “Our proposed joint venture in Bhutan has been finalised and very soon, we may announce the details of the new subsidiary that is expected to have a majority stake of PNB. Since most of the power projects in Bhutan are currently being set-up by Indian companies, our new venture is expected to reap maximum benefits. Also, we are actively looking at opening PNB branches in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan since expansion across Saarc region is our prime focus.”
PNB has also received the RBI’s nod to open branches in Singapore. “The local regulator in Singapore has cleared most of the documents required to acquire the licence for opening a branch,” said Dhawan.
PNB plans to open branches in Australia, Japan and South Africa. Dhawan said he is meeting senior officials of the local regulator in July in the country of Kazakhstan since PNB is keen to convert its existing representative office into a full-fledged branch soon.
“PNB has also finalised to open full-fledged branches in Shanghai in China, Dubai’s International Finance Centre and Norway. We will be the first Indian bank to open a branch in the Scandinavian region as bilateral-trade between the Scandinavian nations and India is currently pegged over $1 billion per annum,” added Dhawan.
Plans are also afoot to float a PNB subsidiary in Canada in a bid to extend its branch network to Vancouver and Toronto. During his recent visit to London to attend PNB subsidiary, Punjab National Bank International Ltd (UK)’s board meeting, PNB chairman and managing director KC Chakrabarty is learnt to have approved the plan to expand bank’s footprint in British cities of Leicester and Birmingham.