RBL Seeks Up To Rs 1,213 Crore In First Indian Bank IPO In 6 Years

Indian private sector lender RBL Bank's initial public offering next week seeks to raise up to Rs 1,213 crore ($182 million) in what will be the nation's first bank IPO since 2010.

The lender will sell new shares in a price band of Rs 224 to Rs 225 per share to raise up to Rs 833 crore to boost its capital base, it said on Wednesday (10 August).

Some of its shareholders are also paring their stakes by selling up to 16.9 million shares in the IPO that opens on August 19 and closes on August 23, according to an offer document. RBL has already raised Rs 500 crore in the pre-IPO placements.

RBL, formerly known as Ratnakar Bank, has had a long history in India when it was a small regional bank. The bank is led by Vishwavir Ahuja, a former Bank of America India chief. In the last six years, the bank has been transforming itself into a full-fledged new age commercial bank.

The bank clocked a total income of Rs 3,234.8 crore, while profit after tax for FY16 came in at Rs 294.2 crore. The diluted EPS of the bank for FY16 stood at Rs 9.43.

RBL Bank, which had assets worth about $5.9 billion as of March, expects its core capital ratio to rise to more than 14 per cent after raising funds in the IPO from 11.1 per cent at end-March, executives said.

RBL has been growing strongly in the recent past at a CAGR 53 per cent in its balance sheet over the last three years largely due to its focus on wholesale banking. Some of its listed peers are Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, and DCB Bank.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and India's Kotak Mahindra and Axis Capital are among the nine banks managing the share sale.

The IPO is the first by an Indian bank since state-run Punjab & Sind Bank went public in 2010.

(Reuters also contributed to this story)