Addressing a press meet here organised to announce the bank's maiden entry into the capital market to raise Rs 51.20 crore through 1.60 crore shares with a premium of Rs 22 per share, he said the money thus raised would be used not only to augment its long-term resources, but also to increase its net worth to meet future capital adequacy requirements.

Of the 1.60 crore shares, 22 lakh shares had been reserved for NRIs and 32 lakh shares for banks and multilateral financial institutions. The Indian public would get 90 lakh shares. Sixteen lakh shares had been earmarked for bank's employees.

The Thrissur-based bank has 354 branches and 54 extension counters in 10 states and two Union territories. Nine more branches would be opened before the end of March next,including two in Delhi, four in Mumbai and one each in Goa and Noida, the chairman said.

He said the deposits last year totalled Rs 2,738 crore and advances Rs 1,463 crore. D'Souza said the bank had set a deposit target of Rs 3,653 crore for the period ending March 1999.

The chairman said NRI services and export finance were the thrust areas of the bank, which had 14 dedicated NRI branches and exclusive NRI wings at another nine branches. As of March 31 this year, export credit accounted for 15.80 per cent of the bank's net credit.

He said the bank's capital adequacy ratio was 9.40 per cent and non-performing assets (NPA) was 6.16 per cent. The bank registered a net profit of Rs 20.74 crore during the fiscal year ending 1998.