SBI Chairman is CNN-IBN Businessman of the Year

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt aims to up the bank's market share by one per cent every year.

 

The search for CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007 – Business has finally come to an end.

 

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt, the man who beat fast growing private players to breathe new life into a public sector giant, surged ahead of Vijay Mallya and the Ambanis to be the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007 in the Business category.

 

It was a year that saw big-ticket acquisitions, global partnerships, and a fast growing billionaire club. Corporate achievers like the bold and ambitious Ambanis, takeover tycoons Vijay Mallya and Kumaramanglam Birla, and self made telecom czar Sunil Mittal made the contest for CNN-IBN's businessman of the year a close one.

 

After much deliberation, the jury voted for neither an entrepreneur nor a billionaire, but maverick banker O P Bhatt. At the helm of the State Bank of India since 2006, CNN-IBN's businessman of the Year has been credited with doing the impossible.

 

Bhatt took over at a time when India's largest bank was faced with tough competition from fast growing private players. The mammoth challenge was to arrest SBI's falling market share, raise funds for expansion and look for new avenues of growth. And as the chairman of a PSU, 55-year-old Bhatt has often worked with one hand tied behind his back.

 

And the result of his efforts is there for everyone to see. Cutting through red tape, Bhatt has managed to convince the Central Government, the largest shareholder in the SBI, to agree to a rights issue which will raise more than 16000 crore rupees.

 

In another daring move, Bhatt kick started the merging of all seven associate banks with the parent bank, despite stiff opposition from unions. Once the merger is complete, the combined entity will have a balance sheet of over 8 lakh crore rupees, and a countrywide network of 14,000 branches — enough to take on global banks looking to penetrate the Indian market after 2009.

 

Bhatt is the only SBI chairman since liberalisation who has been given a five year term, and he's setting himself some tough targets. One of the targets is to up SBI's market share by one per cent every year. Under him the bank is also looking at new business streams like general insurance, pension funds & mobile banking.

 

It's a vision to make SBI a truly global bank and the man behind that dream is CNN-IBN's Indian of the Year in the Business category for 2007.