Speaking to reporters here, he said operating profit improved by 24.82 per cent to Rs 286.26 crore from Rs 229.35 crore in the previous year while the net profit increased by Rs 85.16 per cent to Rs 97.12 crore from Rs 52.45 crore.

The city-based bank has increased net owned funds from Rs 296.23 crore to Rs 389.30 crore, an improvement of Rs 31.11 per cent over the previous year, he said adding a dividend of 25 per cent has been declared by the bank for 1997-98.

According to him, earnings per share (par value Rs 100) improved from Rs 304 to Rs 563. Book value per share increased from Rs 1,721 to Rs 2,257 and returns on assets and equity from 0.56 to 0.91 per cent and 17.66 per cent to 24.95 per cent respectively. The bank's capital adequacy ratio was 10.83 per cent as on March 31last, he said. Khandelwal said aggregate deposits grew by Rs 1,377.22 crore to reach Rs 8,250.35 crore as on March 31 while deposits from the personal segment grew by Rs 690.62 crore (21.71 per cent growth over previous year) constituting 45.81 per cent of the banks' aggregate deposits.