MUMBAI, July 8: Bank of Baroda (BoB) has received permission from the Reserve Bank of India to open a branch at Durban in South Africa. BoB proposes to start operations in that country soon after it receives a banking licence from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

BoB is the second Indian bank to approach the South African central bank to set up a branch in the country. The State Bank of India (SBI) has already received the approval of SARB to set up a branch in Johannesburg with a sub-branch in Durban.

Nationalised banks are now going the whole hog to expand their foreign operations in a bid to increase their global presence. SBI has entered into a MoU with the Export Import Bank of India and MMTC Ltd for floating a commercial bank in Russia. SBI, the largest bank in the country is in the process of opening a representative office at Shanghai.Punjab National Bank (PNB) is planning its first overseas branch in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Canara Bank also recently conducted a survey of the CIS market to explore the possibility of setting up branches there. Even banks in the red like Calcutta-based Uco Bank have branches in Hongkong and the United Kingdom which have been generating profits though the domestic operations of the bank have been suffering huge losses. Bank of Baroda has a network of 38 overseas branches spread over 10 countries. Apart from two subsidiaries, BOB (Kenya) Ltd and BOB (Uganda) Ltd, the bank is also participating in two jointly owned deposit taking companies, IBU International Finance Ltd in Hongkong and Indo-Zambia Bank Ltd in Lusaka.

During the year, operating profits of the overseas branches reached a level of Rs 103.4 crore while the net profit stood at Rs 46.2 crore. The bank's overseas deposits was at Rs 4,162 crore as on March 31, 1997 while advances were at Rs 2,113 crore.

Meanwhile, the project finance division of BoB is expected to receive US$ 50 million from the World Bank as assistance for setting up hazardous waste management (HWM) projects. BoB's project finance division carries out techno-economic viability studies, appraisal of medium and large-size projects and preparation of rehabilitation packages for approval by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.The environment management centre established under the project finance division last year has been undertaking studies of the environment compliance status, identification and follow-up of implementation of HWM projects and related activities.During 1996-97, the division carried out compliance surveys in nine cases for industries like dyes and intermediaries, drugs and pharmaceuticals, paper, sugar, viscose and cement.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.