Ravi Pillai buys 4.49% share in Dhanlaxmi Bank

The RBI had allowed Dhanlaxmi Bank to issue preferential shares to raise capital

Ravi Pillai, a Bahrain-based non-resident Indian (NRI) businessman, bought a 4.49 per cent stake in the Thrissur, Kerala-based old generation private lender, Dhanlaxmi Bank. Pillai, chairman of construction major RP Group, has spent Rs 25.2 crore for mobilising the shares. Earlier, NRI businessman M A Yusuf Ail had bought 4.99 per cent shares of another Thrissur-based lender, Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB).

The Reserve Bank of India had allowed Dhanlaxmi Bank to issue preferential shares to raise capital. Pillai has bought 4.2 million shares in the preferential offer. It is also learned that six groups would purchase around 8.5 million shares in the issue.

Each share, with a face value of Rs 10, is sold at a price tag of Rs 50. The bank has convened a meeting of the shareholders on Saturday to ratify the issue.

Others in the race to buy Dhanlaxmi's shares are Mohanachandran Nair, a Kollam-based leading cashew exporter; P Sasikumar, P Sreekumar and P Sunilkumar - owners of Chennai based Shabari group - and Kollam-based cashew exporter Dinesh Chandran.

The Shabari group will mobilise 2.72 per cent shares.

Dhanlaxmi Bank plans to raise Rs 51 crore through the preferential allotment. This will enable the bank to achieve the capital adequacy ratio under the Basel-II norms.

According to sources, 48.39 per cent shares of the bank are with individual investors.

Earlier, Bangkok-based NRI business man, Chansiri Chawla, had sold a part of his shares in CSB to Yusuf Ali. Chawla has to reduce his holding below five per cent as per the norms of RBI. He bought around 25 per cent of the banks shares a few years back, but RBI did not clear the deal.