Public sector lender UCO Bank on Thursday said it expects a net profit of Rs 600-650 crore in the financial year 2009, on the back of higher disbursal of credit in the present quarter.

“We expect our net profit to be around Rs 650 crore during this financial year,” UCO Bank chairman and MD S K Goel said.

The bank hopes Rs 100-150 crore profit in January-March period and said advances would go up to 22 per cent from the earlier target of 20 per cent, he said.

For the nine-month ended December 31, 2008, the bank reported a 39.54 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 455.16 crore. The total income also rose 26.65 per cent to Rs 6,620.66 crore during the nine-month period.

The Kolkata-based lender reported a two-fold growth in net profit at Rs 171.63 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008. It had a net profit of Rs 82.78 crore in the December quarter of FY’08.

Talking about the capital raising plan, Goel said it plans to come out with a follow on public offer (FPO), as and when market conditions improve. Through FPO, the bank would raise over Rs 400 crore from the market.

In addition to this, the bank is also awaiting government approval for raising money from non-convertible preference share worth Rs 700 crore.

At the same time, the bank is also planning to raise similar amount from Tier II bonds by the end of this financial year.

The bank plans to expand its credit target by about Rs 3,000 crore from the initial target of Rs 65,000 crore for the current fiscal. The total advances of the bank would go up to Rs 68,000 crore by March 2009,

he said.