MUMBAI: State Bank of India is looking to buy banks in Africa and Southeast Asia as it seeks to ramp up its overseas operations, a senior company source with direct knowledge of the matter said. India's largest lender plans to spend roughly $200 million on an overseas acquisition and will mainly focus on banks with strong corporate banking services in the two regions, the source told Reuters.
"Earlier, we were looking at large acquisitions but after the global financial meltdown we are looking at smaller deals," the source said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
State Bank, which has a market value of about $37 billion, is aiming to raise the international operations' contributions to the group net profit to 25 percent over the next five years from about 16 percent now, the source said.
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