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Vishwavir Ahuja, the Managing Director and CEO of Kolhapur-based RBL Bank, has big plans for the next few months. The 55-year-old would roll out Vision 2020 for accelerating growth. He is also getting the bank ready for its initial public offering, or IPO, this year.<h2>"It was clear to us that we were building an institution to leave behind some positive legacy"</h2>
The bank is looking to grow 10 per cent above the industry average. "Our investors expect it," says the former head of Bank of America in India who has managed to transform the erstwhile Ratnakar Bank into the country's fastest-growing small bank.
Ahuja, with his core team - most of whom are from global banks - has stumped other banks with the pace of growth he has managed in a short span of five years. During this period, deposits have risen 20 times to Rs 17,099 crore, loan book eight times to Rs 14,450 crore, and operating profit almost 19 times from Rs 19 crore to Rs 360 crore. When Ahuja joined, the customer base was 150,000. It is now 1.7-1.8 million. The bank is aiming for 10 million by 2020.
And, it's not just growth. "They have improved efficiency, too, while achieving size and scale," says Deven Choksey, Managing Director, KR Choksi Securities. The bank, with a balance sheet of Rs 27,104 crore, has a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 13.13 per cent and one of the lowest net non-performing assets (NPAs) of 0.27 per cent.
While it has enough capital to grow at the present rate for the next 10 months...