Gujarati retailer wants to deepen private-client services with outside help. The Bank of Baroda (BoB), one of India's biggest public-sector banks, is looking to partner with specialized companies for its wealth-management and retail brokerage services.

"BoB will start its wealth-management and stock-broking services by the end of December 2006," says BoB's chairman and managing director Anil Khandelwal. "We are looking for specialized partners in these areas for possible tie-ups"

And more

BoB's push into wealth management coincides with a broad-based upgrade of its service offerings. In support of that, the bank is looking for joint-venture partners in life insurance and asset management as well as retail brokerage and private-client services.

Geographic expansion is also in the cards. BoB "will also be filing applications for offices in Canada, New Zealand and Australia" and stepping up its presence in lucrative Persian Gulf region markets like Qatar and Bahrain, says Khandelwal.

Within its home market, BoB plans to add 25 more branches in southern India by the end of March 2007 and another 75 branches across all of India by 2010.

BoB is based in Baroda, Gujarat. Gujarat is India's most industrialized state. - FWR

.