By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter
State Bank of India (QFC branch) will explore trade and project finance opportunities in the initial phase as Qatar operations of India’s largest lender were inaugurated here yesterday.
Contractor and Kumar at the inauguration of SBI’s QFC branch at the Alfardan Tower yesterday. Also seen are Pratap and Doha Bank Group CEO R Seetharaman
Qatar’s huge infrastructure spending and launch of several projects across various sectors clearly provide opportunities for the SBI branch, said Hemant Contractor, managing director and group executive for international banking.
“Qatar’s economy is growing at a very fast rate. A lot of new projects are coming up here. The license we have got in the QFC enables us to do business banking and corporate banking essentially,” Contractor said in an interview with Gulf Times yesterday.
The Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority has given approval to SBI to open a Category–I bank branch at the Qatar Financial Centre.
The SBI branch will be providing banking services such as accepting deposits, providing credit (including letters of credit and bank guarantees) and arranging syndication of loans. “Project finance falls within the realm of corporate banking, which we are licensed to do through our QFC branch,” Contractor said.
Asked how SBI plans to undertake trade and project finance in Qatar given the presence of major global banks at the QFC, he said, “We are not here to compete with anyone. SBI likes to participate in syndicated loans. In the initial stages, obviously, we will not be able to match the participation level of other local banks. We will start with small amounts, but we would like to be there in as many projects as possible.”
Although Qatar’s dominant industry is oil and gas, SBI will be prepared to look at other industries also, he said.
One focus area for SBI will be to provide trade finance to Indian companies, thereby facilitating a quantitative jump in Qatar–India bilateral trade.
India is now one of Qatar’s largest trading partners and a major consumer of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas, crude and petrochemical products.
Contractor said he expects a lot of Indian companies to bid for the upcoming projects in Qatar. A lot of Indian firms in engineering and construction have participated in many a Qatar project in the past.
“Since most of these companies happen to be our customers in India, we have a natural relationship with them. This, we believe, will further enhance our branch here in Doha,” he said.
SBI’s QFC Branch will function from the Alfardan Towers, West Bay, where the team is led by chief executive officer Satyajit Pratap.
The branch is SBI’s 170th ‘Foreign Office’.
The State Bank Group is the largest bank in India with some 19,347 branches and 25,005 ATMs as of March 31, 2011. It is in 2011 ranked at 296th in the Forbes Fortune Global 500 rank of largest companies in the world, and is the only Indian bank to find a place in the Fortune Global 500 list.
With balance sheet size of $ 274bn as of (March 31), SBI is a banking behemoth with deposits of $ 209bn and capital and reserves in excess of $14bn. The group commands nearly 25% share of the domestic Indian market with a customer base of over 146mn.