State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, plans to be a dominant foreign

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bank in select nations, including Mauritius.

"Plans are in place to be the dominant foreign bank in few identified countries such as Mauritius, Singapore and Nepal," a senior SBI official told PTI.

SBI targets a major share in India-related business in high potential markets world wide.

In tune with the objective, two of the bank's subsidiaries in Mauritius were merged last fiscal to create a new entity called SBI (Mauritius) Ltd, he said.

The bank's two partly owned subsidiaries in Mauritius namely Indian Ocean International Bank Ltd and SBI International (Mauritius) Ltd were merged during the year to create a new entity SBI (Mauritius) Ltd.

The scheme of merger has been sanctioned by Bank of Mauritius from April 1, 2008, he said.

Consequently, the SBI's stake in SBI (Mauritius) Ltd has reduced from 98 per cent to 93.40 per cent after the merger, he said.

At the same time, SBI also increased its stake in the Nepal joint venture to 55 per cent from 50 per cent earlier. SBI bought 5 per cent stake of Nepal SBI Ltd through a competitive bid process from Agricultural Development Bank.

In 2008-09, SBI funded 22 outbound merger and acquisition deals by Indian companies, compared to 21 in the previous fiscal.

At the same time, it plans to strengthen its presence in countries including the UK and the UAE which have strong India links.

"Initiatives (are) under way to strengthen business in countries with a strong India linkage like the US, the UK and the UAE," he said.

Currently, SBI has seven branches in the US and about six in the UK while the bank has exchange services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

SBI plans to become a major player for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), he said, adding the restructuring of the international business is under way to enable new business model.

During 2008-09, the SBI international credit portfolio increased by 54 per cent to Rs 86,267 crore from Rs 56,196 crore in the previous year. There is significant credit growth despite the global meltdown, he said.

At the same time, the bank last year along with its subsidiaries and joint ventures abroad opened nine offices, including full-fledged retail operations in Singapore, last year.