United Bank Of India Postpones IPO

Kolkata: United Bank of India (UBI) has deferred its IPO plan for the current fiscal. The decision comes after its capital revamping plans were not cleared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Finance Ministry. The Kolkata-based bank, however, has Rs 800 crore headroom in the upper and lower tier II levels, which can be used to fund business growth. Interest rates on deposits have reached the roof and I do not foresee any further rise in the cost of deposits. UBI had proposed to change 40 per cent of its equity to preference share. But it did not get clearance from the RBI and the finance ministry. To fund the growth of the bank had already mopped up Rs 200 crore as tier II capital earlier during 2006-07. UBI reported 32.3 per cent growth in business to Rs 59808 crore. While the deposits increased by 27.1 per cent to Rs 37,167 crore, the advances grew by 41.8 per cent to Rs 22,641 crore. The net profit grew by 30.7 per cent from Rs 204.57 crore to Rs 267.28 crore. The bank''s net NPA ratio fell to 1.50 per cent in March 2007 while the gross NPA level fell to 3.60 per cent. During the year, the Bank sold 17 NPAs having book value of Rs 75.37 crore to Arcil.