Kotak Mahindra Bank is looking to double its small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) loan book to Rs 2 trillion in the next two-three years, according to Shekhar Bhandari, president – SME, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The lender had total outstanding advances of Rs 405,957 crore at the end of the June quarter. Of that, SME advances were around $11 billion (roughly Rs 1 trillion). Speaking to FE on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday, Bhandari said the SME portfolio is growing at an annual rate of 25-30% and would double to Rs 2 trillion by FY27.
The bank’s aggressive branch expansion plans will also contribute to the growth of its SME portfolio, Bhandari said.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is planning to increase its branch count by 80% to around 3,500 in the next five years, chief executive officer Ashok Vaswani said in the latest analyst call. The bank added 168 branches in the previous financial year and is looking for an annual addition of 200-250 branches over the next five years.
“We believe that by blanketing top 68 cities with the current kind of branch infrastructure and by making the branch a Kotak kind of asset which is accessed or leveraged by the SME (small and medium enterprises), commercial as well as consumer businesses, we will be able to get the maximum impact for our branches,” Vaswani said in the analyst call.
