SBI plans to raise Rs 10,000 cr by December

MUMBAI: The country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore by December, a top bank official has said.

"We plan to raise Rs 10,000 crore by December and we are evaluating various options of fund-raising," SBI Chairman O P Bhatt told reporters on the sidelines of a banking conference here on Wednesday.
   
The process of consolidation within the SBI group had been kicked off recently with the decision to merge State Bank of Saurashtra with the group. "We will see how this goes before embarking upon further consolidation (with its other associate banks)," he said, adding "we want to learn from this process and then go in for further consolidation."

However, no timeframe has been set for consolidation with the other associate banks of SBI, he said.

Bhatt said there had been a fall in credit demand but this month has seen a pick-up. "We are aiming for a 25 per cent growth in credit," he said.

On NPAs, he said the issue was not a concern for the industry at the moment. "There is no major concern on NPAs presently," he said.

However, with the economy growing at nine per cent in the last two years and with bank credit growing at 30 per cent in the last four years, substantial assets had been built up.

"A whole lot of industries have come up, entrepreneurs have come up and a lot of homes and automobiles have been bought. There could be NPAs arising because of the sheer size of the assets built up," he said, adding his speaking about a possible NPA problem should be understood in this context.