UCO Bank on Thursday reported a marginal increase in October-December quarter net profit at Rs 134 crore (Rs 1.34 billion) and also announced to raise Rs 200-400 crore (Rs 2-4 billion) via Tier-II capital to meet its future long-term advance commitments.

The bank is also planning to open branches in Malaysia and Indonesia though any time frame has not yet been fixed.

"We are going to raise between Rs 200 and Rs 400 crore Tier-II capital to meet future long term advance commitments during the next three months though the date, time and amount would be decided later," UCO Bank chairman and managing director V P Shetty told reporters in Kolkata.

He said though their existing capital adequacy ratio of 13.27 per cent was quite sufficient to meet future expansion programmes, the bank was planning to raise long term (for 5 to 10 years) capital via Tier-II as it had already tied up for long term fixed rate advances.

Commenting on the third quarter performance, Shetty said the net profit of Rs 134 crore as against Rs 130 crore (Rs 1.30 billion) last year was quite impressive in the light of fact that income from treasury operation had come down to Rs 56 crore (Rs 560 million) from Rs 104 crore (Rs 1.04 billion) in the same quarter of last fiscal.

Reflecting the decline in income from treasury, the bank's other income was down by 29.67 per cent to Rs 128 crore (Rs 1.28 billion) from a high of Rs 182 crore (Rs 1.82 billion) last year.

During the first nine months of 2003-04, the bank's net profit stood higher by 47.40 per cent at Rs 426 crore (Rs 4.26 billion) from Rs 289 crore (Rs 2.89 billion) last year, he said.

About overseas branches, Shetty said prior to nationalisation, the bank used to have branches in Indonesia and Malaysia and now they were in the initial stages of re-opening branches there.