Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Friday, GTB chairman and managing director Ramesh Gelli said that the bank is not in favour of increasing its capital till the capital adequacy ratio increases to 12 per cent, which currently stands at 10.28 per cent.

Further, he said that the management intends to augment the capital exclusively through the tier-II capital mode. He further clarified that the bank is awaiting the FIPB nod for the earlier announced $10-million loan from ADB and IFC, he added. Both the agencies have already invested in the bank to the extent of about 32 per cent equity.

He said thatdespite the slowdown in key economic segments, GTB has recorded a 44 per cent growth in deposits over last year. The bank could augment about Rs 3,285 crore at the end of March, 1998, as against Rs 2,279 crore at the end of March, 1997.

Interestingly, the bank's retail deposits increased by about 72 per cent. The bank has opened 22 branches in this fiscal alone, taking the total branch network to 45. It has decided to pay 0.5 per cent more interest to deposits of Rs 50 lakh and above.

The bank's credit portfolio has risen by 20 per cent to Rs 1,756 crore as against last year's Rs 1,462 crore. On the export front, it has earmarked 28 per cent of advances for export finance, Gelli said. The bank's non-performing assets (NPA) have also reduced to 2.98 per cent as on March, 1998, as against 3.93 per cent in September, 1997.The bank has disbursed about 43 per cent to the priority sector, of which the small-scale sector received 32 per cent and agriculture 3 per cent, he added.