HDFC Bank launches up to $2.26 billion share sales in U.S. and India

By Devidutta Tripathy and Chris Thomas

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - HDFC Bank Ltd launched separate share sales on Monday in the United States and its home Indian market in a bid to raise as much as 155 billion rupees ($2.26 billion).

The Indian lender, which is also listed in New York, is offering up to 19 million American Depositary Shares, representing 57 million equity shares, according to a filing.

HDFC, the Indian bank with the highest market capitalisation, also opened a share sale in India, which according to a deal term sheet has a base size of 20 billion rupees with an option to upsize to up to 37.5 billion rupees.

The second-biggest Indian lender by assets has set a floor price of 2,179.13 rupees ($31.75) for both of the share sales. Based on the floor price, the American share sale could raise as much as 124.21 billion rupees, Reuters calculations showed.

With its focus on retail clients and a lower bad-loan ratio, HDFC Bank is an investor favourite at a time when India's banking sector has been plagued by a record $150 billion in non-performing loans.

HDFC Bank, which has the lowest bad-loan ratio among leading Indian lenders, announced plans in December to raise a total 240 billion rupees ($3.5 billion) to fund growth.

It has already raised 85 billion rupees by selling shares to its parent, mortgage lender HDFC Ltd.

The bank last raised 97.66 billion rupees of equity capital in 2015 by selling shares in the Indian and American markets.

Ahead of the news, HDFC Bank shares, valued at about $84 billion, closed 1.5 percent lower in Mumbai trading. In New York, they were down 1.5 percent at $107.99 by 1425 GMT.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are advising on the American as well as the Indian share sale of HDFC Bank.

BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Nomura and UBS are the other banks on the American share sale, while Edelweiss, IIFL, JM Financial and Motilal Oswal are the other bookrunners on the Indian sale.

($1 = 68.6000 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Chris Thomas; Additional reporting by Anuradha Subramanyan of IFR; Editing by Adrian Croft)