Equitas Holdings to raise around Rs 2,176 cr through IPO

Equitas Holdings, which has got a licence for small finance bank (SFB), has fixed a price band of Rs 109-110 per equity share to raise around Rs 2,176 crore on upper price band through initial public offer (IPO).
The IPO would open on April 5 and close on April 7.
It consists of a fresh issue of shares aggregating Rs 720 crore and an offer for sale of equity shares held by P N Vasudevan, managing director of the company, and private equity shareholders.
These include International Finance Corporation, Nederlandse Financierings, Aavishkaar Goodwell India Microfinance Development Company, Sequoia Capital India, Westbridge Ventures and Helion Venture Partners.

"We have a licence for an SFB and we are making a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating Rs 720 crore."
"Out of the total proceeds of the issue, Rs 616 crore will be utilised to invest in our subsidiaries Equitas Finance (EFL), Equitas Micro Finance (EMFL) and Equitas Housing finance (EHFL) and to augment their capital base to meet their future capital requirements," Vasudevan told reporters here.

The offer for sale will bring down the company's foreign holding from the present 93 per cent, he added.
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.

Among the subsidiaries, EMFL is engaged in micro finance lending, EFL is into providing vehicle financing and EHFL is engaged in housing finance.
The company proposes to merge these three subsidiaries into an SFB.
"We believe that the proposed SFB will be able to offer full-fledged financial services including a wide range of liability products such as savings accounts, current accounts, recurring deposits, fixed deposits and remittance facilities to our customers in addition to providing loan products," Vasudevan said.
Axis Capital, ICICI Securities, HSBC and Edelweiss Financial Services are managing the company's IPO.
The equity shares offered through the issue are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.