Mumbai: State Bank of Mauritius (SBM), the largest commercial lender of the island nation, has said that it will soon set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India — the first by any foreign institution. Addressing newspersons, SBM Holdings CEO (India and East Africa) Moses Harding said that the bank would commence operations with a start-up capital of over Rs 500 crore and will launch six branches in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, in addition to existing branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ramachandrapuram.

According to Harding, SBM has reached a saturation level in Mauritius and is looking at East Africa and India for growth by providing foreign currency loans . He said that the timing of SBM’s entry was opportune considering that several multinational as well as public sector banks were withdrawing from the foreign currency segment.

“We feel that the hunger for foreign currency loans can be fulfilled by SBM through our international operations because we adopt a multi-jurisdictional approach and provide loans from different markets,” he said. The bank will also provide overseas investment services for high net worth individuals under the liberalised remittance scheme, which allows Indians to invest $250,000 (Rs 1.7 crore) annually.

Besides SBM, Singapore’s DBS has also made an application to convert its local branch operations into a wholly owned subsidiary. Harding, however, confident that SBM would be the first to kick off operations, given that it had received permission towards the end of last year.

Established in 1973, SBM has a strong franchise in Mauritius, with a fifth of the total market share in domestic advances and deposits. The group is also present in Madagascar, India and Kenya. The bank has had a presence in India since 1994 and most institutional investors are clients of the bank.

