State Bank of India (SBI) has finalised investment banks and merchant banks for its fundraise through qualified institutional placement (QIP). According to a report by Moneycontrol that cites sources, Citigroup, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Kotak Investment Banking, and ICICI Securities are among the top contenders to manage the fundraise.
Sources told the publication that the bidding process to select investment bankers for SBI’s planned QIP attracted strong interest, especially from foreign firms. “The number of global I-bankers who bid for the QIP far outnumbered the domestic players,” said an investment banker who didn’t want to be named.
The public sector banking major will raise up to Rs 25,000 crore via a QIP, its first share sale in eight years, as the lender with a fifth share in the nation’s outstanding bank credit boosts common equity tier 1 (CET-1) capital.
Earlier in May, the board of SBI had approved the proposal to raise funds through QIP. On completion, the Bank will establish a record for the largest QIP-based share sale in India. According to sources, SBI QIP is expected to hit the Street in the second quarter of the current financial year.
Before this, SBI had raised funds through QIP in June 2017, when the Bank had raised Rs 15,000 crore by selling 522 million shares.
Shares of State Bank of India were down 0.31 per cent at 10:00 am today at a trading price of Rs 797.60.