Kolkata : Canara Bank, one of the largest profit making public sector banks, has decided to foray into Insurance business besides launching a unique Venture Capital fund during its centenary year in 2006.
Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director B N Rao said that the Bank, which had earned the highest ever net profit of Rs 1343.22 crores last year, also planned to raise Rs 3,000 crores from the market before December to finance a number of projects this year.
The bank has a network of 2532 branches, including five in overseas locations. The MD of the bank said that they have already started fruitful negotiations with a number of prospective foreign partners in order to enter the Life Insurance business in a big way.
However he refused to name any of them saying that within the next one month the right partner would be picked up with about 27 per cent stake in the joint venture.
At present Canara Bank worked merely as the selling agent of Aviva Life Insurance Company, Mr Rao informed.
The Venture Capital Fund, which will be called ‘ Bharat Nirman Fund’, will be formed by a consortium of six public sectors banks with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crores under the Chairmanship of Canara Bank.
It will associate with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to cater to the growing needs of the IT, Pharmaceuticals, Services and BPO sectors among various others.
Besides Canara Bank, other members of the consortium are Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Allahabad Bank, informed Mr Rao.
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