RBL Bank to raise over Rs 1,500 cr fresh equity at Rs 177 a share

Private sector lender RBL Bank will raise Rs 1,566 crore in equity by issuing fresh shares to institutional investors such as Maple BV (an associate of Barings Private Equity Asia) and ICICI Prudential Life on a preferential basis.

The board of directors has approved a plan to allow 88.47 million shares at a price of Rs 177 per share (of face value Rs 10 each). The transaction is subject to shareholders’ approval, the bank said in filing with BSE.

Its stock was trading almost flat at Rs 182.95 on the BSE.

Following the issue of fresh equity, the bank’s capital adequacy ratio will increase to 18.6 per cent with common equity tier-I (CET1) at 17.4 per cent, RBL said in a filing with BSE.

The lender had a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 16.35 per cent, with a CET ratio of 15.2 per cent at end of June 2020. In an analyst call after the Q4FY20 results, the bank had said it will also ensure that CET1 is close to 15 per cent for FY21, which reflects robust capital adequacy, higher than the regulatory requirement of 9.5 per cent.

After allotment, Maple BV would hold 9.45 per cent stake in the private lender, CDC group, a multilateral development financial institution would 5.5 per cent, ICICI Prudential Life, 3.13 per cent and Gaja Capital Fund II, 1.35 per cent.

During the financial year ended 2019-20, Bank had raised capital to the tune of R 2,775.87 crore in last financial year (2019-20).

It had placed 57.7 million shares at Rs 351 per share under Qualified Institutional Placement to raise Rs 2,025.27 crore and 19.83 million shares at Rs 340 per share on preferential basis to raise Rs 675.8 crore in equity capital.