Mumbai: M Damodaran has quit as the chairman and managing director of UTI Mutual Fund and administrator of UTI-I to concentrate on his activities with Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI).

"I have handed over charge as CMD of UTI MF and administrator of UTI-I this afternoon to the next senior most executive directors of the respective organisations," Damodaran told reporters in Mumbai today (Dec 19, 2004).

On handling over the charge to executive directors, he said that it was an "interim arrangement", and did not elaborate on the selection of new heads for UTI MF and UTI-I . UTI-I is the specialised undertaking of UTI Ltd.

He has been associated with UTI, which was split in 2003, for three-and-a-half years.

"I will now focus on growth of IDBI which became a banking entity on October 1, 2004", Damodaran, who is presently the CMD of IDBI, said.

When asked about reports on IDBI's immediate focus on inorganic growth (mergers and acquisitions), he said, that there is no basis for such statements.

The bank has raised $ 250 million from international markets last week to fund its industrial finance activities, he added.