"Discussions are on and we hope to finalise the deals by year-end," said A.K. Purwar, chairman of the State Bank group, while addressing a press conference here Saturday.

With a network of 13,600 branches, the bank's international presence is supplemented by a group of overseas and NRI branches in India and correspondent links with over 700 leading banks in the world.

Purwar said: "We have acquired a bank in Mauritius and our team is already there. Overseas acquisition is an important way of improving our bank's presence across the globe because India's overseas trade is growing and we are keen to establish our presence in many countries, particularly where there is huge trade potential.

"We are keen on Asia and Africa. Some discussions are on...As soon as these get finalised, we will make announcements."

The bank has also carved a niche for itself in Euro-land with branches in Paris, Frankfurt and Antwerp.

On merging associate banks, the chairman said the associate banks would have to merge with SBI in the long run.

In the short run, Purwar indicated that a virtual merger of SBI and associate banks was taking place with integration in the areas of information technology, treasury operations, accounting practices and market information sharing.

He said the State Bank group commands about 25 percent of the market share in India and the entire corporate and retail banking franchise is serving over 90 million customers all over the country.

Operating profit of the group stood at Rs.150 billion in 2004-05 while net profit was Rs.54 billion.