Doha Bank currently has a branch in Mumbai, Kochi and Chennai, respectively. Top bank officials including the bank's CEO, R Seetharaman participated in the formal inauguration of the bank here today.
Kerela chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the branch, which will be located in the LULU International shopping Mall at Edapally, a press statement said yesterday.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). "Doha Bank and Reliance ADA Group have entered into an alliance to create new opportunities for cooperation and innovation in terms of business development across the GCC and India," Doha Bank said in a release.
Giving reasons for the strong characteristics of India's economic fundamentals, Doha Bank CEO R Seetharaman said, "there is political stability and realignment of monetary and fiscal policies."
"Our long-term view is to set up a full scale subsidiary for our Indian operations which is needed to enter more cities", Doha Bank CEO R Seetharaman told reporters.
Shareholders of Doha Bank, Qatar's fifth-largest lender by assets, approved the purchase in December 2014 after an agreement between the two banks about the sale was reached in April of that year.
Sobha Group signed a corporate finance deal with Doha Bank worth 500 million dirhams (USD 136 million) with a syndicated facility of 800 million dirhams for the Sobha Hartland project.
R Seetharaman, CEO of Doha Bank, in an interview with CNBC-TV18’s Menaka Doshi gave his perspective of what is going on in the region and whether this will spread to the Gulf because of recent newsflow over heated uprisings across Saudi Arabia.