Addressing newsmen here today, Chairman, M Y Khan said the public issue would enable the bank to increase its exposure limit for industrial advances as per the prudential norms. As per the unaudited financial results for 1997-98, the bank has doubled its net profit to Rs 50.15 crore, he revealed.

The bank's deposits grew by 32 per cent to Rs 4,856 crore and advances by 27.5 per cent to Rs 2,158 crore. The net non performing assets (NPAs) of bank stood at 6.02 per cent as on March 31, 1997 and would fall to just over four per cent as on March 31, 1998.

He said, the significant point in the pricing of the bank's share is that it is being offered at a price to book value (P/BV) ratio of 0.50 and 0.62 on the pre-issue and post-issue capital respectively.While the present book value is Rs 76.08, the post-issue book value works out to Rs 61.56 as compared to the offer price of Rs 38 per share. The bank expects to post a growth of about 25 per cent per annum in total business in the next few years, resulting in substantial increase in the risk weighted assets of the bank for which the bank proposes to augment its networth in order to sustain a healthy CAR.

The bank is also contemplating branch expansion on a large scale.