``We have a large clientale among the Non-Resident Indians and the Overseas Corporate Bodies and are hopefull of full realisation of the targets set for the issue,'' said the chairman of the bank, Maurice D'Souza.

Out of 1.60 crore shares, as many as 22 lakh shares have been reserved for NRIs and OCBs, while 16 lakh shares are reserved for the bank staff, he added.

The bank is offering its equities of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 22 per share and the Rs 51.20 crore issue will open on September 22 and close on October 3.

D'Souza said the bank had chosen to go public, despite the volatility in the bourses, to augment its net worth for meeting future capital adequacy requirements.

Elaborating on the future plans, D'Souza said, the bank proposed to open more branches especially in northern India.

He said SIB has already received licencefrom the Reserve Bank of India for opening branches in Gurgaon and NOIDA.

The bank chairman also said two more branches would be opened in New Delhi in the current year. Currently, the bank has 354 branches across the country, out of this 215 are in Kerala and 89 in Tamil Nadu.

D'Souza said South Indian Bank has decided to fully computerise all its urban branches in the next two years, and added that the bank had set up its own system development department which has successfully developed software, leading to total branch automation.

Twenty-four branches of the bank have been fully computerised and 25 branches had been partially computerised up to March 1998, he added.

For the year ending March 1999, the bank has projected total income of Rs 484.42 crore and net profit of Rs 27.31 crore.