In just the first year of operations in Sanand – Gujarat’s emerging auto hub – Societe Generale, a French multinational banking and financial services company, has managed to create a loan portfolio of USD 100 million (over Rs 600 crore). Now the bank plans to double the size of it’s portfolio during the year 2014-15.
“It is a good size to have it is the first year of operations. We have reached out to about 50 companies in Sanand most of which are in the pharmaceutical and chemicals business,” said Marc-Emmanuel Vives, chief executive and Group Chief Country Officer of the bank on Friday.
“We plan to double the size of our loan and deposit portfolios in 2014-15,” Vives said adding that the bank which is largely into corporate banking activities also has a deposits of Rs 50 crore in Sanand where the bank began operations in March 2013. Societe Generale is the first foreign bank to step into Sanand which currently has a sizeable presence of public sector and private banks. ?
“We will be looking to tap some of the new sectors that have not been targetted so far. This includes, auto companies, food processing, metallurging transformation, energy and textiles,” he added.
Apart from Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi are the only two the centres where the bank has branches. The bank has a loan portfolio of about Rs 6000 crores in India, of which Sanand contributes 10 percent.
“We also plan to open branches in Chennai and Bangalore next,” Vives said adding that the bank will also target the cities of Pune and Hyderabad in the coming years.
