RBL to mop up Rs 1680-cr from PE funds

Mid-sized private sector lender RBL Bank today said that it will be raising Rs 1,680 crore to augment its capital base for regular lending activities and for potential acquisitions.
The bank's board approved to issue over 3.26 crore shares of Rs 10 face value to a group of 10 investors at a price of Rs 515 per share totalling to Rs 1,680 crore, it said in a statement.
Share sale is subject to standard regulatory approvals and also those from shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting on August 4, it said.
"The purpose of this capital raise is to augment the bank's tier 1 capital to support the future organic growth of business as well as enabling the bank to capitalise on inorganic opportunities and for other general corporate purpose," it said.

The investors include ABG Capital, CDC Group Plc, Global Ivy Ventures, HDFC Standard Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, LTR Focus Fund, private equity fund Multiples, Plenty CI Fund and Steadview Capital Mauritius.
The bank scrip was trading 0.12 per cent up at Rs 525.70 per share on the BSE at 1413 hrs, as against gains of 0.08 per cent in the benchmark.

The announcement comes a day after the bank disclosed that the Reserve Bank had found it under- reporting its gross non-performing assets by Rs 339.30 crore for the year ended March 2016.
The bank had reported gross NPAs of Rs 208.05 crore whereas RBI assessed the dud assets stock to be at Rs 547.35 crore, it said in the annual report.

The bank joins a growing number of lenders who have had to disclose the divergence due to a RBI mandate. Others who have reported so include Yes Bank (over Rs 4,000 crore under-reporting), Axis Bank (over Rs 3,000 crore) and ICICI Bank (over Rs 5,000 crore).