Bank of Maharashtra Share price and Fundamental Analysis

Company History

Bank of Maharashtra is a Public Sector Bank (PSB) in Maharashtra, which offers personal banking, cash management, retail loans and other financial services. Their services include deposits, savings/current bank account, vehicle loans, personal loans, retail trade finance, global banking, lending to priority sector and small scale sector, foreign exchange and export finance, corporate loans and equipment loans. The branch network includes specialized branches in the area of Foreign Exchange, Government business, Treasury and International Banking, Industrial Finance, MSME and Hi-tech Agriculture, Pension Payment etc.

The Bank has one subsidiary, namely The Maharashtra Executor & Trustee Company Pvt Ltd, which undertakes management of public/ private trusts and administration/ execution of Will. They also sponsored three Regional Rural Banks, namely Aurangabad Jalna Gramin Bank, Thane Gramin Bank and Marathwada Gramin Bank with head office at Aurangabad, Thane and Nanded respectively.

Bank of Maharashtra was incorporated on September 16, 1935 and started their business on February 8, 1936. In April 10, 1946, The Maharashtra Executor & Trustee Company Pvt Ltd was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank. In July 1969, Bank of Maharashtra was nationalized along with 13 other banks. After nationalization, the Bank expanded rapidly.

In the year 1998, the Bank attainted the autonomous status, which helped the Bank in providing more and more services with simplified procedures without intervention of Government. In the year 2000, they incorporated Magic eMoney Ltd (MeM) a joint venture of Bank of Maharashtra, Dena Bank, NextStep Infotech P. Ltd. (NSIPL) and Magic Software Enterprises (MSE) Israel continued to undertake departmental projects.

During the year 2003-04, the Bank came with their initial public offer of 10 crore shares of Rs 10/- each at a premium of Rs 13/- amounting to Rs 230 crore. The issue received overwhelming response and was over subscribed by more than 11 times. Also, they opened 34 new branches and upgraded 10 extension counters into full-fledged branches during the year.

During the year 2004-05, the Bank opened 14 new branches, 2 extension counters and up-graded 1 extension counter into a full-fledged branch. Also, they opened Holiday Home at Shirdi in addition to 5 existing Holiday Homes at different places. The Bank acquired a stake of 9% in Global Trade Finance Pvt Ltd, a non-banking finance company promoted by the EXIM Bank.

In January 2006, the Bank signed a MoU with Life Insurance Corporation of India, for distribution of their insurance products. Also, they launched a scheme of money transfer service for Non Resident Indians and other foreign account customers, using the Western Union Money Transfer Services provided by Western Union Financial Services Inc. For this regard, the Bank has entered into agreement with Weizmann Forex Ltd, the primary agent of Western Union Financial Services Inc. During the year 2006-07, the Bank opened 29 new branches and upgraded 16 extension counters into full-fledged branches. They expanded the ATM Network from 145 ATMs to 302 ATMs during the year and entered into collaboration with VISA for issuance of Debit cards. The Bank commissioned their own Data Center at Pune and Disaster Recovery (DR) site at Hyderabad. Also, they established six IT Labs at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Lucknow in order to take care of the massive training requirement for the CBS project.

The Bank launched new schemes like Mahalaxmi Term Deposit Scheme (3 years term deposit scheme), Mahadeep Scheme (Financing of Solar Water Heating System), Insta Remit Scheme (RTGS scheme for instant fund transfer), etc during the year. In May 2006, they entered into tie up with United Insurance Company Ltd for distribution of their non-life insurance products.

During the year 2007-08, the Bank also launched two group insurance schemes, namely Maha Suraksha Deposit Scheme for all types of deposit account holders and Maha Grih Suraksha for home loan borrowers. Also, they entered into distribution agreement with 15 select Asset Management Companies during the year. They opened 20 new branches upgraded 10-extension counters into full-fledged branches. They also opened 3 Currency Chests during the year.

In March 2008, the two Regional Rural Banks, namely Aurangabad Jalna Gramin Bank and Thane Gramin Bank were amalgamated into one unit in the name of Maharashtra Godavari Gramin Bank with head office at Aurangabad and having area of operation in nine districts of Maharashtra. As at March 31, 2008, the total branch network comprised of 1,375 branches and three extensions counters spread over 22 states and two union territories.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2010, Bank of Maharashtra crossed the milestone business level of Rs 1,00,000 crore. During the year, the bank set up currency futures desk at its dealing room and started proprietary trading in MCX-SX Exchange. Straight-through-Processing (STP) of Merchant Transactions was implemented in all 28 designated Fex Centres during the year.

During the year under review, Bank of Maharashtra opened 33 new branches. The bank set up three retail credit hubs one each at Pune, Mumbai and Delhi to facilitate robust and qualitative growth in retail credit with special focus on housing loans. Five Asset Recovery branches were also set up one each at Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Aurangabad to provide greater thrust to the legal and administrative measures for recovery of NPAs.

The year 2009-2010 was a landmark year in the chronicle of the bank as far as technology implementation and up scaling are concerned. The bank completed the process of networking of all the 1,453 branches and bringing them under Centralized Solution on 2 February 2010, thereby achieving 100% Core Banking Solution (CBS).

During the year under review, the Mobile Banking product Maha Mobile was launched offering services like balance enquiry, view last three transactions, cheque status enquiry, request for cheque book / statement of accounts, change MPIN and intra bank fund transfer up to Rs.50,000 per day.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2014, Bank of Maharashtra received equity share capital amounting to Rs. 800 crore (including share premium of Rs. 622.38 crore) from Government of India (GOI) through allotment of shares on preferential basis. With capital infusion, the share holding of GOI in equity share capital increased to 85.21% as on 31 March 2014.

During the year, the bank opened 162 new branches, the largest number of branches opened by the bank in a financial year since inception.

The year 2013-2014 was a milestone year for the bank as far as technology implementation and up scaling is concerned. During the year, bank expanded its ATM Network from 692 ATMs to 1827 ATMs, covering nearly all the 1890 branches of the bank. The implementation of banks own ATM Switch commenced during the year and was implemented live from 8 May 2014.

Bank of Maharashtra has its own Corporate Network 'MAHANET' with all Branches, Zonal Offices, Training Colleges / Centers and Head Office interconnected and working under Core Banking Platform. Its robust & secure Network Technology Architecture ensures seamless services to the customers. During the year 2013-14, the process of migration of the network to highly reliable Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-VPN (Virtual Private Network) based architecture was completed.

In July 2013, Bank of Maharashtra took a novel step by forming a new department by the name 'Department of Strategic Initiatives'. The project is named 'Utkarsha' and is a business transformation programme. The bank has engaged EY as consultants for the transformation. A team of 12 officers headed by an AGM is also formed to undertake this project. Time lines and the scope of work are defined and the expected time for the project completion is 18 months. The objective of Utkarsha is to draw a strategic roadmap and align bank's operating model to emerge as a more competitive, agile and efficient player. Project 'Utkarsha' encompasses six core elements namely Branch Transformation, Centralization and Business Process Re-engineering, Sales Enablement for retail and SME loans, Alternate Channels, Human Capital and Capital Efficiency.

With a view to meet the credit requirement of its customers, Bank of Maharashtra launched a new retail loan product 'Mahabank Gold Loan Scheme' with effect from 26 September 2014. In January 2015, Bank of Maharashtra launched New Gen Mobile Banking Application Maha Mobile'.

During the financial year ended 31 Mach 2016, Bank of Maharashtra set up Central Processing Cells at all the 33 zones. The centralized processing is expected to improve quality of appraisal and reduce undue delays in credit delivery mechanism.

In addition to GRAS (Govt. Receipts Accounting System- e-payment of taxes) through all its branches in the state of Maharashtra, the bank introduced e-SBTR (electronic Secured Bank & Treasury Receipts).

In order to extend additional credit support to its standard housing loan borrowers, Bank of Maharashtra launched 'Mahabank Top Up loan Scheme' with effect from 26 February 2016. Under this scheme credit is extended for repair / renovation / furnishing of house, children's education, Marriage of Children, Medical treatment, buying a vehicle or hi-tech gadgets etc.

During the year under review, Bank of Maharashtra issued 10,51,50,787 equity shares amounting to Rs 394 crore (including share premium) to Government of India (GoI) on preferential allotment basis. Consequent upon the capital raised during the year, as above, the share holding of GOI in equity share capital stood at 81.61%.

During the year, Bank of Maharashtra opened 15 new branches. CBS Hardware Augmentation Project covering DC & DR was undertaken & successfully completed during the year to take care of increasing transactions load and to ensure smooth functioning of CBS system at field level. E-Gadgets implemented in a big way during the year with commissioning of Self Update Pass Book Printers, Queue Management Solution & Bunch Note Acceptor Machines at various locations across the bank.

During the financial year ended 31 Mach 2017, Bank of Maharashtra introduced One Time Settlement (OTS) Schemes viz. 'Mahabank Rahat Yoiana' for NPAs with Ledger Balance up to Rs.25.00 lakhs. During the year 2016-17 another special Suo Motu OTS Scheme (Viz. 'Mahabank Karimukti Yoiana') was introduced for recovery in Regular Written Off (RWO) a/cs up to Rs 25 lakhs.

The bank added two new partners namely M/s Future Generali (Non-Life Insurance Company) and M/s Cigna TTK (Standalone Health Insurance Company) under Bancassurance in the month of February 2017.

During the March 2017 quarter, Government of India vide its letter dated 16 March 2017 infused Rs 300.00 crore by way of preferential allotment of equity shares and the amount was maintained under Share application money pending for allotment, till the allotment of equity shares done. However, RBI has allowed treating share application money pending for allotment as CET1 capital for computation of CRAR.

The bank successfully initiated/launched various Major IT Projects during 2016-2017. During the Year 2016-17, upgrade of Contact Center Operations including Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) was successfully done & system is made operational. The bank launched MahaUPI', its UPI mobile application from 26 August 2016. The bank started the Paper-less ATM-RePIN facility (Green PIN) for ATM Card through its ATM Machines. During the year under review, the bank launched New Internet Banking Portal for Retail Customers.

Bank of Maharashtra was placed under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) by RBI in June 2017, in view of its high net NPA. Bank therefore had prepared Monitorable Action Plan for FY 17-18 to improve its position.

During the year under review, the bank introduced One Time Settlement (OTS) Schemes. 'Ghar Ghar Dastak Yojana' (GGDY) was introduced for Small NPA borrowers up to Rs 10 lakhs. MahaMukti - 2017-18 (A) and 'MahaMukti - 2017-18 (B)' schemes were introduced for NPAs having ledger balance above Rs 10 lakhs up to Rs 1 crore and ledger balance above Rs 1 crore up to Rs 25 crore respectively. The bank introduced a scheme for one time settlement of Specified NPA accounts under 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana 2017' (CSMSSY-2017) for farmers in the State of Maharashtra as proposed by Government of Maharashtra.

During FY 2017-18, the bank redeemed Basel II /Basel III Compliant Bonds for an amount of Rs 1925 crore by exercising call option. The bank undertook borrowing as part of its asset liability management.

In 2017-18, the bank added two more partners in life insurance business i.e. M/s Aviva Life Insurance Company and M/s Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company.

The Government of India infused total additional capital of Rs 3173 crore Bank of Maharashtra in two tranches; Rs 650 crore on 29 December 2017 and Rs 2523 crore on 27 March 2018.

As part of its endeavor to curtail its operating expenses, Bank of Maharashtra merged 51 branches during the year, which were in close vicinity of each other, ensuring that no discomfort was caused to the customers.

The Year 2017-2018 was a Technology Upscaling year for the bank. CBS Contract has been renewed for a period of 5 years from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2022 with revamped CBS Front-end and additional components viz. Automated Testing, Batch Job Automation, On-line Training for staffs, Revenue Leakage Monitoring etc. During the year under review, the bank tied up with BSNL for upgrading the Bandwidth of the existing Leased Lines to 2 Mbps.

During the FY 2018-19, Bank has redeemed Basel II /Basel III Compliant Bonds for an amount Rs 200 crore on the redemption date. Bank undertook borrowing as part of its asset liability management.

Bank also entered into strategic tie-ups with Tractor Manufacturers, Micro Irrigation Companies, Farm Pond Construction Company for promoting farm mechanization, micro irrigation activities and also with Govt. of Maharashtra under POCRA / SMART Project for financing to FPO during the year 2018-19. The Bank has entered into an Agreement for Credit Guarantee with Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) for financing to Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).

During the FY2020, Bank's Total Business stood at Rs 2,44,955 crore as against Rs 2,34,117 crore in 2019, showing an annual growth of 4.63%. The Bank's Total deposits stood at Rs 1,50,066 crore as compared to Rs 1,40,650 crore in the previous year, showing an annual growth of 6.69%. Gross advances of the Bank stood at Rs 94,889 crore as on 31.03.2020 in comparison to Rs 93,467 crore as on 31.03.2019.

The Bank has allotted 297,09,37,912 Equity Shares of Rs 10 each of Bank to Government of India at issue price of Rs 15.14 per share on 29 April 2019 against a capital infusion of Rs 4498 crore. The Government of India infused Equity capital of Rs 831 crore in Bank on 20 April 2020. The said money is kept in the Share application money pending allotment A/c till allotment formalities are completed. With the approval of RBI, said capital is used for computation of CET-1 Ratio as on 31.03.2020. Further, the Bank also raised Tier - II capital of Rs 600 crore by issue of BASEL III Tier - II Bonds with coupon rate of 8.70% in March 2020.

As on 31 March 2020, the bank had a distribution network of 1,833 branches and 1851 ATMs spread across all the States and four union territories.

As on 31 March 2021, the bank had a distribution network of 1964 branches and 1,950 ATMs spread across all the States and six union territories. During the year ended 31 March 2021, the Bank opened 86 new branches and set its footprint in 69 additional districts. It also opened 46 fixed point outlets served by Bank Mitras, named as Customer Service Points (CSP). It installed 499 CRMs..

During the year 2021, Bank has allotted 73,60,49,601 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each of Bank to Government of India at issue price of Rs. 11.29 per equity share on 25th August, 2020 against the capital infusion of Rs. 831 crore. It also raised Tier II capital of Rs. 505.70 crore in financial year 2020-21.

As on 31 March 2022, the bank had a distribution network of 2,022 branches and 2,128 ATMs spread across all the States and six union territories. It opened 108 new branches and set its footprint in 73 additional districts. It installed 91 ATMs and 87 CRMs.

During the year ended 31 March 2022 the Bank opened 108 new branches and set its footprint in 73 additional districts. It also opened 50 fixed point outlets served by Bank Mitras, named as Customer Service Point (CSP). As on 31 March 2023, the Bank had a distribution network of 2,203 branches and 2330 ATMs spread across all the States and six union territories. It opened 199 new branches and 10 fixed point outlets served by Bank Mitras, named as Customer Service Points (CSP). In the same period, 10 branches were converted into CSP and 8 branches were merged with another branches.