Speaking at a press meet in connection with the forthcoming issue, bank's chairman and managing director B Vasanthan said: "We are in a comfortable position as the bank has reported overall growth in its operations for the last couple of years.

We are also looking forward towards sustainable growth and the issue will help financing the future growth plans. A major part of the issue will be diverted towards the asset expansion plans of the bank". Though the bank has a networth of Rs 646.54 crore, a book value of Rs 18.58 and an EPS of Rs 3.66, the shares will be offered at par. The bank has a capital adequacy ratio of 12.49 per cent. This is well above the regulatory level of nine per cent. Net non-performance assets (NPAs) of the bank stood at 3.23 per cent as against average NPA levels of 7.97 per cent for all public-sector banks.

"The bank analyses all the applications for loans and gauges the exposure levels to different norms in accordance with the prudential norms prescribed by the central bank as well as the bank's internal lending policies. This helps to maintain the low NPA levels", Mr Vasanthan said.

The net-profit of the bank stood at Rs 63.78 crore as on September 30, 2000, registering a 16 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous year. Lead managers to the IPO are SBI Capital Markets, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), DSP Merrill Lynch, UTI Securities and MCS Ltd will be the registrar.