SBI to sell shares to institutional investors

New Delhi: Top Indian lender State Bank of India on Monday launched a share sale to institutional investors to raise as much as USD 2.33 billion, in a bid to shore up its capital base.

The bank is selling new shares in a price range of 275.76 rupees to 287.25 rupees a share in the biggest ever Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), according to a deal term sheet. The price range is a nil to 4 percent discount to the stock's closing price of 287.25 rupees on Monday.

SBI's share sale comes as Indian banks face raising billions of dollars in new capital by March 2019 to meet global Basel III banking rules. Lenders will also need more capital as they make higher provisions for bad loans.

In March, SBI's board had approved a plan to raise up to 150 billion rupees (USD 2.33 billion) from capital markets during the current fiscal year that began in April. SBI last sold shares in January 2014 to raise USD 1.2 billion.

The share sale will lead to an up to 6.7 percent dilution of existing share capital and an up to 6.3 percent of the post-issue capital, according to the term sheet. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, IIFL, JM Financial, Kotak Investment Banking and SBI Capital Markets are managing the share sale.