Hyderabad, April 26: The merger process of the State Bank of India’s subsidiary banks with itself is awaiting the central government approval, said Amitabh Guha , managing director of the State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH). The process has apparently slowed down because of these formalities, he added.

SBH did business worth Rs 88,665.46 crore in 2007-08 compared with Rs 71,000 crore in 2006-07. Net profit rose to Rs 556.99 crore against Rs 505.50 crore, Guha said. Total deposits grew 22.78 per cent and advances 26.06 per cent.

Highlighting the plans for 2008-09, Guha said the bank aims at a growth of 25 per cent in deposits and 30 per cent in both advances and operating profit. The bank is targeting a net profit of Rs 765 crore and expects gross NPAs to be less than 0.75 per cent of total advances.

In the fourth quarter, net profit stood at Rs 186.23 crore, lower than Rs 199.54 crore in the previous quarter because of Rs 23 crore provisioned for employee wage revision and sick leave.

Fourth-quarter advances grew by Rs 2,682 crore compared with Rs 1,181 crore in the year-ago period.