State Bank of India, the country’s biggest lender, on June 11 approved a proposal to raise up to $3 billion (approximately Rs 25,000 crore), according to a regulatory filing. The approval, to raise $3 billion in one or more installments through a public offering or a private placement of senior unsecured notes, was given after a board meeting of the state-owned bank on Tuesday.
“We submit that the Executive Committee of the Central Board at its meeting held today i.e. 11th June 2024 has approved, inter alia, to examine the status and decide on long term fund raising in single / multiple tranches of up to $3 billion under RegS/144A, through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US dollar or any other major foreign currency during FY 2024-25,” SBI said in the BSE filing on Tuesday.
SBI did not disclose the intended use of the proceeds from the fundraising.
In January this year, SBI raised Rs 5,000 crore ($600 million) through Basel III-compliance additional tier-I perpetual bonds.
Last month, SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara also said the lender is willing to raise equity capital to support its growth plans.
Meanwhile, SBI on Tuesday also said small business lending will be the “focal point” for growth and profit for the next five years.
The state-owned lender launched a product christened “SME (small and medium enterprises) Digital Business Loans”, under which loans will be sanctioned in 45 minutes.
“MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) advances have been identified as the focal point for the bank’s growth and profitability over the next five years,” an official statement said.
For the year ended on March 31, 2024, the bank’s overall SME book grew by over 20 per cent to Rs 4.33 lakh crore and gross non performing assets in the book came down to 3.75 per cent from a peak of 9.43 per cent in FY20.
The newly launched product was termed as “a significant leap forward” in digitalisation by offering SMEs a digital loan journey with an end-to-end sanction turnaround time of up to 45 minutes.
Moreover, SBI Mutual Fund has increased its stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank to over 5 per cent. In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Kotak Mahindra Bank said that the fund house purchased 21.57 lakh shares through the open market on June 5.
With the fresh addition, SBI Mutual Fund’s stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank increased to 5.01 per cent, it said.
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