Equitas Holdings to hit markets tomorrow; to mop-up Rs 2,200-crore

The IPO will bring down the company's foreign holding from the present 93% to 35% and therefore allow it to operate as an SFB

Equitas Holdings will hit the capital markets on Tuesday to raise Rs 2,200-crore through an initial public offer (IPO), making it the first issue of the current fiscal — which started this month.

The company, with a licence for small finance bank (SFB), has fixed the price band at Rs 109-110 per share. The initial share-sale programme will close on April 7.

The IPO comprises fresh issue of shares aggregating Rs 720 crore and an offer for sale of up to 132,425,884 equity shares by existing shareholders, including P N Vasudevan, MD, and private equity stake holders.

These include International Finance Corporation, Nederlandse Financierings, Aavishkaar Goodwell India Microfinance Development Company, Sequoia Capital India, Westbridge Ventures and Helion Venture Partners.

The IPO will bring down the company's foreign holding from the present 93% to 35%. According to the norms, foreign shareholding should be below 49% to operate as an SFB.

The funds generated from the fresh issue will be used to develop IT infrastructure for the new bank and for lending purposes among others.

Chennai-based Equitas Holdings in September 2015 had received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank to set up an SFB to provide basic banking services to small farmers and micro industries.

Axis Capital, ICICI Securities, HSBC and Edelweiss Financial Services are managing the company's IPO.

The shares offered through the issue are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.