Mumbai, May 28 (KNN) Dena Bank is planning to open around 175 new branches nationwide with 45 new branches in Gujarat and the PSU lender will focus on priority sectors like agriculture and small enterprises.

The bank will continue to focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), agriculture and retail advances in Gujarat. Last year, advances grew by 27 per cent to Rs 47,000 crore. The credit-deposit (C/D) ratio has improved in the state to the current 48 per cent.

Currently, the bank has the nationwide branch network of about 1,461 branches, of which around 900 are located in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

"In the last financial year, we have achieved a milestone of becoming a mid-sized bank last fiscal. This year we expect the total business of Rs 2, 07,000 crore. Almost one third of our business will come from Gujarat," said the Chairman and Managing Director of Dena Bank.


Commenting on the concerns for rising non-performing assets (NPA), MD noted that Dena Bank has lesser NPAs than its peer banks.

However, textiles industry has remained a cause of concern for the bank for high rate of NPAs. "Our gross NPAs stand at around 2.19 per cent, which is much less than the other players in the industry. Gujarat, having people with good business acumen, has even lesser NPA levels at below 2 per cent," he said while speaking to the media yesterday.

However, in its credit portfolio, the bank has 55 per cent of the total advances to corporate, 33 per cent to priority lending and rest to the retail segment. (KNN)