Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait will open a new branch in India as part of its plan to increase its presence in the country. The bank will also add more capital and scout potential partner for credit card and call centre unit. The new branch, its fourth in the country, will be at New Delhi. The existing branches are at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kochi. Abdulkarim A Bucheery, chief executive of the bank, said the bank is planning to provide mortgage product for retail business. While asset base of Indian operations is about $ 260 million, total India linked exposure of banking group is pegged at $ 500 million. The bank intends to atleast triple the size of asset base in the next five years, Bucheery said. It will bring in $15 million more 2014 into Indian operations, addint to the $30 million it invested in 2013. The bank’s deposits and advances in India grew to Rs 1,388 crore at end of March 2013 from Rs 897 crore in March 2011. The bank is also interested supporting financial services activities. It is scouting partners for venture in credit card and business process outsourcing segments. Bucheery also said the bank is consideering whether to convert its operations under a wholly-owned subsidiary. It will wait to see experience of foreign banks which have large presence in India about forming wholly-owned subsidiary, he added.
