Indian Overseas Bank, which is coming out with its public offering of Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) equity shares of Rs 10 each on September 5, would concentrate more on retail lending in a big way, a senior bank official said on Tuesday.

In view of the declining demand from the manufacturing and corporate sectors, the bank would focus on retail lending in the coming days, S C Gupta, chairman and managing director, IOB, told reporters in Coimbatore.

The main reasons for focussing on retail lending were the reasonable returns and negligible risk profile, he said.

With a growth rate of 16 to 17 per cent over the period of last three years, the bank was expected to do exceedingly well during the current year, if the net profit of Rs138 crore (Rs 1,380 million) in the first quarter, which was one-third of last year's profit of Rs 417 crore (Rs 4,170 million), was any indication, Gupta added.