Just a day after the SBI (Amendment) Bill, 2010, was placed in Parliament, the bank?s CMD OP Bhatt said the bank might not opt for a dilution of government stake to around 51% as was proposed in the Bill. The bank instead prefers a rights issue and wants to keep the government?s stake at the present level of 59.41%, he said.
?If we get the rights issue, there will not be any dilution,? he said on Tuesday. While he did not specify the amount the bank will raise if government stake is brought down to 51%, he said, ?It depends on share prices but we can raise close to about Rs 22,000 crore. However, first we want to exhaust the rights issue and then go for any other means.?
?We will look at raising at least Rs 10,000 crore worth capital over the course of next fiscal (2010-11) in order to fund our growth needs. We are, however, not in a dire need to raise capital at present,? he said.