Double The Bank

Romesh Sobti, who has turned around the mid-sized private sector bank over the past 10 years, is now working on doubling the size in the next three years.

- Anand Adhikari

When foreign banker Romesh Sobti took charge at the midsized IndusInd Bank a decade ago, there were not many who would have believed in his vision to transform the private bank. The new generation private bank had legacy issues (Ashok Leyland Finance was merged with it), belonged to a corporate house (Hindujas) and other private banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank (earlier UTI Bank) had taken a huge lead both in terms of brand acceptability and also performance. The global financial meltdown was gradually spreading from the US and Europe to emerging markets like China and India. It was probably the most difficult business cycle for any new CEO. But Sobti did the unthinkable and succeeded in turning around the fortunes of the bank. Take a look. When Sobti joined the bank, profits were paltry at around ₹100 crore, revenues stood at ₹500 crore and balance sheet size at just ₹20,000 crore. Today, profits have pole valuted to ₹3,000 crore, revenues are in upwards of ₹10,000 crore and balance sheet is nearing the ₹200,000 crore mark. Yes Bank, Kotak Bank and IndusInd Bank are all midsized banks in terms of balance sheet.

There’s more. This Mumbai headquartered bank has generated immense wealth for the shareholders. The bank’s market capitalisation has risen from ₹4,000 crore a decade back to close to ₹100,000 crore. Sobti is now more ambitious. He plans to double the business numbers (loans, profits and customers) over the next three years. “It’s an ambition. We have done it twice in the last two business target cycles during 2011- â€‹14 and 2014-17. Hopefully, we will do it again,” says Sobti, who has over four decades of work experience in public, foreign and private banks.